Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice to Deceive
by BlueEyesXOX
Summary: When a charming Irish guy bumps-and-dumps her older sister, Grace finds herself sucked into a slightly insane revenge plan. Her mission? Get behind enemy lines. But to do that Grace has to successfully catch the attention of said-Irish guy's twin. The problem with the plan? She's only seventeen. Connor/OC
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

Hi readers! Few little details to help with the story;

This story is based before the movies, about a year, maybe a few months before. The idea came to me after I watched the movie 'John Tucker Must Die'. The 'T' rating is for language and god-knows what else...but no Smut. I apologise to the Smut readers, but I cannot write it to save my life. If anyone could write one for me a little later on in the story though, I would be really grateful, and you would get full credit for the scene. I only own my OC's ~ Grace, Camille, and any other OC that may appear during the story. The other characters that you recognize belong to Troy Duffy.

Link to OC's appearances and what-not are on profile, along with the girls' family pendant through-out the story. May want to check the images out, as they will help with the story.

Story is in OC's POV, and this is a Connor/OC story because I feel there aren't enough. There is a bit of Murphy/OC scenes in it, but not many. So I apologise to all the Murphy/OC fans. The boys may not be in the first chapter, but they will most likely be in the second.

The title of the story 'Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice to Deceive' is from a poem my mum heard somewhere, also I thought it would be a good title for the story. I'd look it up though, if you know what it means the story is easier to understand I suppose.

I apologise if my grammar and what-not isn't as good as a lot of the stories on here, but I'm a little new to Fanfiction, and my writing is improving...at least I hope so.

Anyway, that's about it, but I hope you all enjoy the story. Review, Favourite, or Follow if you can, it would mean a lot.

* * *

~ Boston, 1997 ~

I glanced towards the clock on my wall once again, sighing as I realised the time; 2:00.

She _should _have been home by now. _Should _have been in bed, asleep. But no, she was late - again.

My big sister Camille, or CC as she was mostly known, knew how to take her time. With her being at the party-age of twenty-three, I shouldn't have been surprised that she was late. She was always late. Her new infatuation must have been a big one, with her coming home at all hours of the morning. And the later she was, the more tired I became. Camille wasn't exactly the best big-sister in the world, calling her selfish would be an understatement. But she had her good moments. They were very, very rare, but they came when I least expected it.

The window to my bedroom slid open and I froze for a moment, before soon realising who was sneaking into my room.

"Hey lil-sis." She greeted, giggling as she stumbled noisily into the room.

I rolled my eyes and got down from my bed, approaching my stupidly-drunk sister, "Where have you been?"

She giggled again, waving her hand dismissively as she attempted to walk towards the door. She failed immediately, instead falling into my dressed that I'd placed near the window.

"Oopsie-daisy."

I sighed and gently took hold of her arm, leading her to sit on my bed. "Stay here." I instructed before slowly opening the bedroom door and peaking my head out, looking both ways to make sure my parents weren't awake.

A thudding noise reached my ears and I looked back to see Camille face-down on the floor, laughing her ass off. The too-high heels obviously weren't doing much good for her tonight.

"Camille," I groaned, dropping to my knees in front of her.

"Gracie." She sang, closing her eyes sleepily.

I pulled her arm around my shoulders and lifted us both to our feet, helping her towards the open door. All the night's she could've chosen to get drunk, and she chose a Sunday.

"Where we goin'?" She mumbled as we exited into the dark hallway, heading towards the door directly across from mine.

I managed to twist the door-knob and push it open, making sure to switch on her bedroom light afterwards. "Your room."

She groaned as I lowered her onto the king-sized bed and began taking off her heels. What kind of man let a woman get so drunk she couldn't walk? A total jackass. But Camille always did have a thing for those kind of men.

"I didn't do it," She muttered. It was then I realised she'd fallen asleep on me.

After taking off her jeans, jewellery, and getting her underneath the thick blanket, I grabbed the small trash-can and placed it next to her bed. She would definitely feel the effects in the morning. Although my parents would probably pass it off as a bug - they always did. Either they knew she drank and were in denial, or they really were as oblivious as my sister made them out to be.

I quickly filled up a large glass of water and put it on the nightstand, sighing down at my now-sleeping sister. Despite her rebelliousness, and very slutty behaviour, she was a good person. She'd done a lot for me. And it didn't matter what anyone else said, they didn't know her like I did.

"Goodnight Camille." I whispered, kissing her on the cheek before exiting the room. Making sure to switch off the light and close the door as I left.

~...~...~...~...~...~

I yawned and rubbed at my eyes, shoving the last bit of toast into my mouth.

It was 7:30 I was the only one in the house, the only one awake anyways. My parents were always away at work, never home. And even if they were, we never saw them. With my father being a cop and my mom being a wedding planner, I rarely talked to them - but I was fine with it. Camille was actually supposed to be driving me to school, but she seemed pretty pre-occupied with re-enacting the Exorcist in our bathroom.

"Hey bitch."

I smiled in amusement as my best friend - Jade - sat down in the opposite chair.

"Hey slut."

Most people at our school had Jade down as the stereotypical blonde, though I couldn't exactly blame them. She had the long wavy hair, bright-blue eyes, clear skin and of course, she was on the cheerleading squad. But despite her appearance, she was anything but stereotypical. She was a lot smatter than she let on, and randomly crazy. And her 'I-don't-care-what-others-think' attitude was the cherry on top. Although it usually got us both into trouble.

"Where's the rents?" She questioned, taking my glass of orange juice and gulping it down.

I shrugged. "Work."

"And Camille is...?"

"Sleeping on the bathroom floor. Probably." I replied, placing my empty dish and glass into the sink.

"You know," The wooden stool scraped against the floor as she pushed back from the counter. "I think it's time your sister started working." She finished. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my shoulder-bag off the table.

"She does work." I pointed out as Jade followed me towards the door.

Since my sister was obviously too hung-over to drive us, it meant taking the school bus. Which wasn't as bad as some made it out to be, but then again it did all depend on where you sat and what grade you were in. Freshmen were at the front and the Seniors were at the back, unfortunately the Juniors and Sophomores had to occupy the middle of the bus. Or as Jade and I liked to call it; The Warzone. Water bottles flying everywhere, spit-balls being shot, and god knows what else passed over the seats. It always made me thankful that we sat at the back.

"If you could call it that." She scoffed as we walked down the street.

"Jade." I warned, crossing my arms.

I'd always hated people judging my big-sister, but on some level they were right.

"What?!" She exclaimed, shrugging her shoulders, "You know I'm right. Working in a strip-club isn't the most sophisticated job."

I rolled my eyes in annoyance and shook my head at her. "It's not like she strips. She's a _waitress_, Jade. Besides it makes money so my parents are happy."

"Same shit different toilet. Camille still wears those outfits."

We both sat down on the wooden bench, waiting for the bus to arrive.

"How the heck do _you _know what she wears when she's working?" My eyebrows rose in question.

Jade shrugged nonchalantly, "My brother likes to visit."

I grimaced and shuddered at the thought. "Ew."

"Ew would be the exact word my friend."

The bus pulled up and I eagerly speed-walked up the steps, trying to shake off the image of Jade's brother in the strip-club. It wasn't that he was bad-looking or anything, he was actually quite hot. But the thought of someone getting off over your sister kind of makes a person less unattractive.

I shuffled into a seat nearest to the back and Jade soon joined me, though she hadn't quite let the conversation go.

"I mean, I can't tell you how many times he says her name in his sleep."

"Jade." I gritted.

"It's more like a moaning sound..." She rambled.

"Jade!" I exclaimed.

She immediately stopped and turned to me, her eyes narrowed in confusion. "What?"

I shook my head in disbelief and leaned back into the seat, staring out the window as the bus moved on.

* * *

Author's Note:

So I know the first chapters short, but it was just to kick off the story. I had a lot of trouble starting it.

Anyway I hope it was okay, and review if you can.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note:

Hi readers! So I know I said the boys would be in the second chapter, but I'm not quite sure if they will be, so sorry if they're not. They may be though, depends where this chapter eventually goes.

Anyway, thanks for those who reviewed so far.

* * *

I walked into my house and sighed loudly, closing my eyes as I leaned back against the front door.

School was getting more and more stressful for me - for everyone in my grade really. It was March and I was pretty sure that I was the only one freaking out about it. The finals were in May, and graduation in June. Then we were on our own. Jade wasn't the least bit fazed and neither were our other friends, so I kept it to myself. The last thing I needed was our group worrying about the same thing I was. It just wasn't worth the trouble.

"Grace, you home?!"

I groaned at the sound of my sister's voice. "Yeah!"

The light sound of footsteps echoed through the house and I dumped my shoulder-bag onto the banister, waiting patiently for Camille to appear. Which she soon did.

"So how was school lil-sis?" She greeted, looking a lot better than she did when I left.

"Boring." I shrugged, heading into the living room.

Camille followed me into the room, plonking down on the couch, "I remember being in High-School."

I rolled my eyes and sat down opposite her, folding my legs underneath me. "Well you should, it was only five years ago."

She narrowed her eyes at me but carried on, "Making out behind the school, getting to third base in the janitors closet."

"Lovely." I sarcastically muttered. Hearing about her slutty past was not how I planned on spending my evening.

"It sure was." She sighed dreamily, staring up at the ceiling.

I shuddered and stood from the couch, making my way into the kitchen.

"So, you busy tonight?"

I groaned, knowing exactly where it was going. "No."

"Gracie," She whined, childishly smacking the kitchen counter as I poured myself a glass of soda. "Please."

I shook my head, putting the soda back into the fridge before turning to face her. "No. It's Monday and I need my sleep tonight. Can't you just use the front door for once?" I picked up my drink from the counter and took a sip.

"You _know _I can't! Mom and dad always lock the front door."

I shrugged. "I'll unlock it."

"I'll be _drunk, _you know how loud I am when I'm pissed. C'mon Grace."

"So climbing up the side of the house and through my bedroom window when your pissed is easier than walking through the front door?" I asked, pulling myself up to sit on the counter.

Camille groaned, throwing her head back as she did. "Grace."

"Camille." I mocked.

She lowered her head and stared at me pleadingly. "_Please, _Grace. This guy is...amazing. He's not like the others, he's sweet, considerate, hot. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to just throw him down and - "

I held up my hand to stop her from carrying on. "Don't need to know about that. And how great can he be? He let you get drunk off your ass last night."

"In his defence he didn't pour the drinks down my throat. It was my decision to carry on drinking, and he did call me a cab. Most guys would have taken me home as soon as I hit that floor." She replied.

I tilted my head, my curiosity peaking. "He didn't bed you?"

She shook her head. "Nope, not sure why though. Just shows how nice of a guy he is."

"Yeah," I started, quickly taking another sip of my soda before carrying on. "Or he could just want sex with a girl who knows what she's doing."

Camille narrowed her eyes - again. "It isn't like that. And for your information I'm amazing at drunk-sex!"

I gagged and shook my head. "Didn't need to know that either."

She walked forward and took hold of my hands, looking up at me with her 'Please' face. The face that always got our parents to give her what she wanted.

"Grace, I really like this guy. He told me to meet him at the club tonight and I said yes. C'mon little-sister."

I stared at her for a moment, running the different scenarios through my head. If I said yes, I wouldn't be getting any sleep until two in the morning - again. But if I said no, then Camille would never let me live it down; She'd guilt-trip me into an early grave.

"Fine."

She smiled widely and jumped up and down before pulling me into a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you!"

I sighed and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. "Just be careful with this guy Camille, he may not be as nice as you think."

~...~...~...~...~...~

"So, she didn't come home?"

I paced in the living room with a tight grip on my hair in frustration, staring up at the ceiling.

Last night I'd gone to sleep at 11:30; My usual time. I'd just figured that Camille would climb through the window and wake me up with her stumbling, or she would wake me up herself and tell me about her great time out. But unlike every time before, she hadn't come back. She _always _came back, never stayed out. Sometimes she'd come through my window at 6:30 in the morning, or other times I'd find her asleep at the foot of my bed. But she hadn't come home, she wasn't even in her room.

"No!" I exclaimed, pausing to face Jade.

After freaking out myself about Camille being gone, I'd told Jade to come over a lot earlier. It was 8:00 and I was not planning on going to school until Camille came home. Which was why I was still in my PJ's.

"Grace, you need to calm down."

My eyes widened in disbelief. "Calm down?!" Jade sighed and rubbed her forehead, knowing that telling me to calm down was the worst thing to do. "How am I supposed to calm down, Jade?! Camille is god-knows where with god-knows who, doing god-knows what. And you're telling me to calm down? Never tell a stressed out girl to calm down!"

She jumped up from the couch and gripped my shoulders, locking her eyes with mine. "Grace, you need to take a deep breath."

I nodded in agreement and closed my eyes, breathing in long and slow.

"Good girl Grace. Now sit down." She instructed. I opened my eyes and let her pull me down onto the couch.

"I'm sorry," I sighed, shaking my head with an apologetic look. "I've never freaked out like this before. She just always comes home, Jade. I don't know what to do right now."

My best friend nodded in understanding and shrugged her shoulders, crossing her legs on the couch. "Maybe she stayed over at this guy's place. It happens Grace. You just need to relax and not worry about CC. It's not your job to worry, it's your parents' job."

I ran a hand through my hair and sighed, knowing she was right. "Yeah."

Jade lightly smacked her thigh's triumphantly. "There's my girl! Now, get ready for school, and be quick. I don't wanna have to walk because you're PMS'ing."

I smiled and stood from the couch before heading towards my room.


	3. Chapter 3

"Camille! You home?!" I called as I entered the house.

It had been two days since her disappearing act, and she'd certainly paid for it when she got home. Our parents never found out about it, they'd just assumed she was in bed. But that wasn't very surprising. Thankfully though, Camille hadn't committed anymore disappearing acts on me. And she'd apologised profusely for making me worry, but it did take about three hours for me to completely forgive her.

I'd gone straight to Jade's house after school, helping her with her English work. Saying she sucked would be an understatement. So when I came home, I knew Camille would most likely be here, but our parents wouldn't. Though I was more relieved about that.

I walked up the stairs and straight into my room, dumping my shoulder-bag on the floor next to the door.

"He stood me up, Grace."

I jumped about five feet in the air and looked up to see Camille sat on my bed.

"Jesus Camille," I sighed, putting a hand to my chest. "You gotta, like, give a sister some warning."

She nodded and stared down at the floor while I slowly took in her appearance; She was still in her PJ's, her hair was a mess, her eyes were red and her cheeks were soaked. And Multiple scrunched up tissues were scattered across my bed and nightstand.

"What's wrong?"

"He didn't come, that's what!" She exclaimed, grabbing another tissue and rubbing at her eyes.

I sighed and made my way towards her, sitting next to her on the bed. "Last night?"

She nodded and shrugged her shoulders. "He was supposed to come by the club, like he usually does, but he didn't."

I narrowed my eyes curiously. "Camille," She turned to face me. "You didn't mean _the _club did you?"

She nodded again with a confused expression and I groaned, inwardly rolling my eyes at her stupidity. "You went out with a guy you met at the strip-club?!"

"No!" She exclaimed, jumping to her feet and staring down at me. "He wasn't a visitor, Grace!"

"Okay, okay." I rushed, trying to get my big-sister to calm the heck down.

She sighed and took her place back on the bed, crossing her legs as she turned to fully face me. I did the same.

"I met him outside the club. I'd just finished working and he was headed to this bar he hangs out at. It was a rough night and I was pissed, tired, and I just wanted to come home. But this guy..." She paused and shook her head, a small smile on her face. "He was so nice to me. Asked me if I was okay and everything. We started talking and he took me to the bar he hangs out at."

"Was this the night you came home pissed?" I questioned.

She nodded. "Yeah."

"Camille," I closed my eyes for a few seconds before carrying on. "What happened the night you didn't come home?"

She took a deep shaky breath before replying. "We went to the bar again, but I didn't drink as much this time. It was enough to give me a buzz, but not enough to make me hit the deck. Anyway, I get pretty affectionate when I drink..." She trailed off into a sigh and I shook my head at her.

"Camille, what did you do?"

"We went back to his."

As soon as those words left her mouth, I knew exactly the reason he hadn't come back to see her. He'd got what he wanted from her, and now he didn't need her any more.

"Christ Camille." I groaned, rubbing my forehead stressfully.

"I just thought he was different!" She exclaimed defensively. "I never though this would happen."

I raised to my feet and turned to look down at her, crossing my arms as I did. "So you're telling me you didn't see this coming? Where is this guy from anyway?!"

"The Irish part of town." She muttered, staring down at the white carpet.

My eyes widened in disbelief. "He's Irish?" She nodded in confirmation. "So a foreign guy treats you nice and you decided to jump into bed with him?" I knew it was harsh, but she deserved it.

"I thought he was different!"

"Yeah but he wasn't, was he?!" I sighed and shook my head, calming my tone. "I told you to be careful, Camille."

She nodded and looked up at me, the tears falling again. "I know."

I sat back down on the bed and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. She rested her head on my left shoulder and clung to my shirt, sobbing as she did.

"It's okay sis." I muttered, stroking her hair soothingly. Whoever this guy was, he was a serious jackass.

~...~...~...~...~...~

My bedroom door swung open and slammed against the wall, the sound echoing through the quiet house.

I jumped again and looked to see Camille rush into the room, a look of complete anger on her face. It wasn't unusual for this to happen though, it was a usual routine for when she got 'dumped'. She'd cry, and then she'd get angry.

"Can you _please _give me some warning next time?!" I exclaimed, an irritated look on my face.

She plonked down on my bed and stared at me. "I need your help."

Her bluntness wasn't surprising, but her asking for my help was. "Uh...what?"

She rolled her eyes. "I need your help. This guy is not getting away with what he did to me."

"Camille," I sighed, lowering my Math book to the bed. "Getting even won't work."

"Yes it will! I've seen the movies so yeah, it will work."

I shook my head at her. "You don't even have a plan!"

"That's why I need your help." She shrugged.

"No. I will not be part of this."

She sighed and turned her head, staring through my bedroom window. "I really liked this guy Gracie. What he did to me..." she paused and shook her head. "I can't forget that."

The emotional look on her face, combined with my sympathy for her got the best of me.

"What do you have so far?"

She smiled and squealed excitedly, grabbing a small notebook from her PJ shirt pocket.

"Okay, I don't have anything yet. But I just pretty much wanna make his life hell."

I nodded and rolled my eyes slightly. "You know him more than me, what does he love the most."

She shrugged, lowering the notebook to the bed as she averted her eyes in thought. "McGinty's - it's the bar he goes to. Uh...his friends. And his brother."

"He has a brother?" I asked.

She nodded. "A twin."

A large smirk appeared on her face and alarms started going off in my head. Whatever she was thinking was _not _good.

"What?" I asked worriedly.

"Him and his brother, are like this." She raised her hands and linked her index finger over her middle finger.

I shrugged in response, not getting it. "So?"

"_So," _She stressed. "Imagine how hurt he would be if his brother betrayed him."

I nodded. It would be pretty awful. "That's good and everything but what are you gonna do? Sleep with his brother? I seriously doubt he'd be that upset about it."

"True." She sighed, knowing it was a fail.

We both sat there in silence for about five minutes, trying to think of anything. And even with me being strangely creative with some things, I couldn't think up anything.

"I got it!" She suddenly exclaimed, causing me to flinch.

"Jesus," I whispered, taking a deep breath before turning to her. "What?"

"Imagine what would happen to him if all his relationships failed. Like, all the girls he wanted to sleep with weren't attracted to him." She smirked.

I tilted my head. "That's a good plan and everything, but how would we do that? There's no way."

"Actually there is."

I narrowed my eyes, both out of curiosity and confusion. "How?"

She stood from the bed, pacing slowly as she explained her plan. "We send someone in to get close to them. Preferably a girl because let's face facts, they're guys and the only way to get a guys attention is to make him think he's getting the cookie. The spy would be able to do anything from their side - _anything._"

"That's a good plan and all, but where are we going to find someone gullible enough to go out with a guy, only so she can get revenge on another guy." I shrugged.

Camille smirked down at me and I immediately knew the answer. And I didn't like it one bit.

"No, uh-uh, no way." I rambled, shaking my head.

"C'mon Gracie, you're the only one smart enough to pull it off!" She exclaimed, falling back down onto the bed.

I shook my head again. "No way."

"Give me one good reason why." She crossed her arms, pouting slightly.

"Maybe because I'm only seventeen! How old are these guys Camille?"

"They're...twenty five."

"There we go."

She groaned and shook her head. "You wouldn't be sleeping with this guy Camille, you'd just be making him think you're going to."

My eyes widened in disbelief. "That's even worse!" She rolled her eyes and I carried on. "Who the heck am I supposed to be going for anyway? His friend?"

"Nope," She smirked. "His _twin._"

I raised my eyebrows and leaned forward slightly, calming my tone. "So let me see if I got this right. You want me to go out with some Irish guy - that I barely know - to help you get revenge on his twin for sleeping with you and then leaving you?"

She shrugged and nodded. "Pretty much."

"Quick question for you sis, how will I know which brother you slept with? They're twins for god's sake!"

"_Fraternal,_ not identical. But both equally hot."

I sighed and shook my head, moving to my feet. "I don't know Camille, this is...insane."

"No, what's insane was pulling the three F's on me!"

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "Three F's?"

"Find 'em, fuck 'em, forget 'em."

"Classy" I muttered sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes and also got to her feet, taking her hands into my own. "Please Grace. This is the last favour I'll ask of you."

"Camille, how far am I gonna take this? Something tells me his brother wouldn't be interested in going out with a high-school girl."

"Well don't tell him you're in school. What he doesn't know won't kill him."

Noticing my hesitation, she added to the sympathy I was feeling. "You saw how I was Grace, I've never been that upset over a guy."

I glanced around the room as though the answers would be on my bedroom walls, but I already knew my answer.

"Fine, I'll do it."


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note:

Hi readers! First of all, thank you so much to those who reviewed so far, they really keep me motivated to carry on the story.

Secondly, I know I've dragged it out a bit, three chapters in and still no sign of the boys. But no worries, they will definitely be in this one. And I really apologise if the Irish accent thing is a bit off, I'm only basing it off their voices in the movies.

Anyway, that's about it but I hope you enjoy the chapter. And review if you can! :).

* * *

I dumped my shoulder-bag on the banister and rubbed my forehead stressfully - again.

It was Friday and while I'd usually be over the moon, I was close to dying. Today was the day Camille would send me in to begin our plan.

"Grace! That you?!"

I rolled my eyes and entered the living room where she was waiting. "You know it's me Camille, mom and dad never come home until at least 12:00."

She shrugged in response. "Helps to be cautious."

"I guess." I muttered as I sat down on the opposite couch.

"_Anyway," _She started, pulling on her denim jacket. "You ready?"

"Fuck no." I replied, wringing my hands nervously.

"Don't worry about it, they're pretty easy to get." She shrugged.

"Yeah, because that makes me feel so much better about this."

She rolled her eyes at my sarcasm and stood from the couch. "Calm down Grace, you're being weird."

I stood up and followed her towards the door. "No, I'm being _normal._ Considering what we're about to do and all."

We exited the house and I made sure to lock the door before following her to the car.

"Where are we going anyway?" I asked, crossing my arms.

She shrugged as she unlocked the blue convertible, climbing into the driver's seat. "The Irish part of town."

My eyes widened as I got into the car. "You're kidding me?"

"Nope." She shook her head, shoving the key in. "That's where they are, so that's where we're going."

"How do you know they'll be there? They could be anywhere. Work, that bar, their friends' house..."

"Grace!" She exclaimed, cutting me off. I looked to see her with her eyebrows raised. "Calm down, they'll be there."

"That's why I'm freaking out!"

She rolled her eyes and slid on her sunglasses, followed by a black baseball hat.

"What's that for?" I sighed, shaking my head at her.

"Protection of identity. Can't have the assholes recognizing me now can we?"

"So you throw on some shades and a baseball hat and now you're invisible? You can be such a comedian sometimes." I chuckled, resting my head on my palm.

"Shut it."

~...~...~...~...~...~

"Why did we stop here?" I asked, my eyes narrowed in confusion.

We'd been driving for a while and had just stopped in a random part of the street. It was pretty busy but I couldn't see anything worth sticking around for. Well, except for the small diner a few buildings down. Though it was pretty small.

"That is why." Camille replied, pointing to the small diner.

"What's the plan?" I sighed, turning to face her as she switched off the car.

"Okay here's what you do," She lifted the cap and shoved her hair up into it before fully turning to face me. "You're gonna go in there, sit as close to those guys as you can - without it being creepy - and then I'll do the rest."

"What make's you so sure they'll be there?"

She shrugged. "I may have had my best friend's boyfriend follow 'em."

"You're serious?" I questioned, my eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"Well, he's married, she threatened to tell his wife that he was going to the club every night. Works out fine for me anyway."

I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Figures."

"Okay, now go in there and make me proud."

I nodded and climbed out of the car before turning and resting my hands on the door. "How do I know if it's them?"

"Oh believe me, you'll know."

She smirked and took off down the road and around the corner, leaving me alone in a part of town I'd never been to before.

I turned to face the small diner and took a deep breath before pulling the door open. The bell above the door jingled as I walked in and I winced, trying to be as quiet as possible.

As I slowly made my way further into the diner, I took in everything, and actually hoped that the brothers weren't here. But I knew my luck wasn't that good. They were two of the seven people in the place, and were sitting pretty close to the entrance.

Camille wasn't lying when she told me that I'd know who the boys were, it was pretty obvious. They pretty much wore the same clothes; Jeans, boot, black T-shirt, and a black coat. But both were very different appearance wise.

Neither one had noticed me and I was quite grateful for it, but I knew it would only be a matter of time. Whatever Camille had planned wouldn't be good for me, but it would probably get their attention.

I sat at the table to their left - next to the window - and picked up the small menu, pretending to scan it over. Camille had leant me five dollars, telling me that if I was going into a diner, I'd need to order something to make it believable. For someone who worked in a strip-club, she had the brain to be working in the police-force. Although she'd probably be someone they'd send in as an undercover whore, or something slutty like that. And knowing my sister, she'd probably enjoy it too.

"What can I get yah?"

I looked up to see a young blonde waitress holding a notepad and pencil.

"Got anything under five bucks?" I asked sheepishly, resting my head on my palm.

She smiled in amusement and nodded. "You can get a nice Gingerbread man and cup of tea for 3.50."

"Then I'll take it."

She nodded and headed back towards the front while I lowered the menu, instead choosing to stare out the window.

"Hey baby."

I looked up and my eyes widened.

The guy leering down at me was big - to put it simply anyway. He wasn't overweight, well, not a lot. But he was quite muscly, too muscly in-fact. His head was shaven and he had a slight beard growing. To say I was nervous would be an understatement - I was scared shitless.

"Hi," I replied hesitatingly.

He sat down opposite me and rested his arms on the table as he leaned forward. "Can I buy yah something?"

I immediately shook my head. "No thanks, I'm good."

As I slid my hands back towards me, away from the man, he moved forward and took hold of my left with his right. "C'mon darlin'," He kissed my knuckles and I grimaced, attempting to pull my hand back.

"No, now back off." I snapped.

He narrowed his eyes and used his other hand to grip my forearm. I gasped as his grip tightened, knowing there would most likely be a bruise the next day. "Obviously you misunderstood me."

I bit down on my bottom lip as the pain in my arm increased. "Please."

"I'm sure the lady understood ye jus' fine."

Both me and the unknown jackass turned our heads, only to find the brothers watching us intently.

"Yeah? Well I don't think she did." His grip loosened but didn't let up.

"Let 'er go, now." The lighter-haired brother demanded.

I still wasn't exactly sure which brother it was my sister slept with, but in that moment I didn't care. I'd probably kiss either one if they got the guy off me.

"You gonna do something if I don't?" The man questioned.

"Yeah, we will." The darker-haired brother replied, his eyes flickering towards my arm, which was still held in a pretty tight grip.

They had a pretty intense stare-down but the guy finally released my arm. I whipped it towards my chest and looked down to see red fingerprint marks that I knew would develop into bruises.

"Fine, bitch ain't worth it." He snapped before jumping to his feet - knocking the chair down as he did - and exiting the diner.

I sighed and rubbed my forearm with my thumb, attempting to sooth the slight ache.

"Ye alright lass?"

"I'll be fine, guy had a pretty tight grip." I replied, gesturing towards the door.

The lighter-haired brother slid his chair forward and gently took my arm, inspecting the marks. And while he did that, I took the time to inspect the two better.

While no one would be able to tell they were brothers - let alone twins - their eyes gave them away. If you looked close enough you could tell that they had the same blue-eyes. And in that moment it didn't matter which brother my sister slept with, I could tell why she had - they were both seriously hot. Too hot even.

"Probably be some light bruisin' later, nothin' too bad I s'pose." He told me, leaning back in his seat while releasing my arm.

"My own fault, really. Should've just let him buy me something." I sighed, shaking my head slightly.

"No, you shouldn' have, ye weren't interested. Guy just couldn' take a hint." The dark-haired brother reassured.

I smiled slightly and nodded. "Thanks, by the way. I guess I owe you guys now, huh?"

They both smirked and the lighter-haired brother shrugged. "Tell us yer name an' we'll be even."

"Grace." I replied without any hesitation. This was my chance to get closer to the enemy and I wasn't letting it pass by. Christ was I starting to sound like Camille.

"Beautiful name. Jus' as beautiful as it's owner."

I giggled lightly and bit the corner of my bottom lip. "Thanks."

"Fuckin' charming ain't ye?" The dark-haired brother muttered sarcastically, earning a small glare from his brother. "Me name's Murphy, that flirt's name is Connor."

"Nice to meet you guys. And thanks - again."

"It was no problem lass, guy's like that shouldn' be touchin' ye." Connor replied.

"Although, can't exactly blame 'im." Murphy added. I smiled in amusement as Connor leaned over and smacked him across the back of the head. "What was that for?"

"You know what it was for." Connor pointed a finger at his brother warningly.

"Thanks guys, but I have to get going." I admitted, rising from my chair.

They both looked away from each other and up at me.

"What about yer food or whatever?" Murphy gestured towards the bar and I remembered that I'd actually ordered something.

"Actually I think I'd better leave before another creep hits on me." I shrugged.

"Look me brother didn' mean anythin' before..." Connor started, but was cut off as his brother hit him.

"What the fuck make's ye think I'm makin' 'er leave?!"

They started up again and I had to wonder if this was a daily occurrence. But with them being brothers, I guess that it most likely was.

"Guys!" I exclaimed, earning their attention - again. "Neither one of you is making me leave, if anything I'd like to stay and chat to you boys. But I have to be getting home."

Lying had never been a difficult thing for me. But I did lie to my parents faces nearly every single day, so this was nothing.

"Can we at least walk ye out?" Murphy asked, leaning back in his seat.

"I don't know, can you?" I shrugged before exiting the diner.

As soon as I exited the diner I heard the doorbell ring again behind me, and I knew they'd followed me out.

"So, how're you gettin' home?"

I turned to face the brothers and shrugged my shoulders. "Lift from a friend. What about you guys?"

"We won't be home for a while, lass. Got a lot of drinkin' ta do. It is Friday after all." Connor shrugged.

I nodded in understanding and suddenly noticed a familiar blue convertible parked across the street. The top was up and I could faintly see Camille inside.

"Sounds like a plan. Well it was nice meeting you guys, but my rides here." I gestured to the car and they both glanced back before turning to face me again.

"Alright lass, well as long as ye can get 'ome safe." Murphy nodded.

"Of course. Maybe I'll see you guys again." I shrugged, my voice slightly hopeful.

Connor nodded. "Maybe. It is a small town after all."

"Bye guys, and thanks again." I smiled, turning to head towards Camille's car.

"You too Grace."

They both waved and I gave them a small wave in return before making my way towards the car, feeling slightly triumphant as I did.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note:

Hi readers! Gonna make this note quick. Just wanted to thank everyone that reviewed, it really means a lot. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

"So what happened? How did it go?"

I hadn't been in the car for more than five seconds before Camille started to shoot questions my way. She ripped off her cap and glasses, staring at me intently.

"What? No 'hi Grace how are you?'."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Hi, Grace. How are you?"

I shrugged. "Can't complain."

"There we go. Now what happened?" She repeated slightly annoyed.

"Well, I got manhandled by some huge guy. The brothers stepped in and that was about it." I replied, leaning back in the seat.

"Good, my plan worked."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "What?"

She shrugged and started up the car. "I paid the guy to go in and harass you. Thankfully you followed the right path."

"Are you kidding me?!" I exclaimed as we took off down the road. She shook her head in response. "Do you have any idea how freaked out I was?!"

"Not really. And don't be so dramatic, it couldn't have been that bad."

I shook my head in disbelief and rubbed my forehead stressfully. "You have _no _idea."

"Look, that's not what you went in for. Did you meet 'em? I'm assuming you did since you came out with them."

"Yeah I met 'em. Which one did you sleep with anyway?" I questioned, turning to face her.

"Murhpy." She muttered, gripping the steering wheel even tighter.

"So, that means I'm supposed to get ..."

"Connor." She finished for me.

"Well that makes sense." I sighed.

"What do you mean?" She questioned.

I shrugged. "They're both pretty flirty."

"So, did Murphy hit on you?" The anger in her tone was enough to make me flinch.

"Maybe, I don't think so. He said he didn't blame the guy for wanting to touch me but that was about it." I reassured, trying to calm her down. The last thing we needed was her swerving the car because her sleeping buddy hit on me.

She took a deep breath and nodded, turning her head to face the road. "Good."

"So, I guess the plan failed." I shrugged.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, her eyes narrowed in confusion.

I tilted my head at her. "They didn't ask me to hang out with them or anything, that was the plan. Right?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No silly, not even close." At my very confused expression, she explained further. "All you had to do was meet them. Now the plan can really start."

"Christ." I sighed.

~...~...~...~...~...~

"So you're whoring yourself out for your sister?"

I rolled my eyes at Jade's reply and leaned back into my pillow. "No. Not even close."

After finally coming home, I'd phoned Jade up to let her know about my sisters insane revenge-plan. Any other time I wouldn't have told her, but she was my best friend, and the plan could end up getting in the way of our 'best-friend-time' as Jade loved to put it.

"That's what it sounds like." She sang.

"Look, all I have to do is go out with this guy a couple of times and screw over his brother. Easy-peasy." I sighed, pulling my knees up to my chest.

She chuckled. "Sounds like. _But _I have to know - are they hot?"

"Gorgeous." I groaned. I'd never tell my sister I found them hot, but this was my best friend - I could tell her anything.

"Damn, think your sister'll let me in on this plan?"

I smiled in amusement and rolled my eyes. "Not likely, wants someone she can trust I suppose."

"Well that's a bummer. How old are these guys anyway?"

"25, 26. Not quite sure. All I know is they're a lot older than me. Which makes this plan even worse."

"Yikes. Well, be careful." She warned.

"What do you mean?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"I mean they could find out and turn the tables on you guys. Plus if this guy you're supposed to seduce is as old as you say, he'll be expecting a little something out of it. Are you really willing to take it that far?"

I paused in thought before replying. "No. Camille told me I wouldn't have to take it to that level. Besides, as long as I make out with the guy I don't think he'll object that much."

"You sound like a slut." She laughed.

"You can be a real bitch you know that?" I smiled.

"Yeah, but that's why you love me so much."

I rolled my eyes and sighed as I glanced towards the clock. "I gotta go."

"Alright, see you on Monday - bitch."

"Later, slut."

~...~...~...~...~...~

I was in the middle of breakfast the next day when Camille walked into the kitchen, looking happy as ever. And to make things more confusing - she wasn't in her PJ's.

"Hurry up buttercup, we got stuff to do today." She sang.

I narrowed my eyes at her and swallowed the piece of toast. "Why so cheerful?"

"It's a nice day and I'm in a good mood. So what?" She shrugged, pouring herself a glass of apple juice.

"Well, usually this time of morning you'd be puking your guts up in the bathroom."

Camille turned and rolled her eyes at me. "Slightly over-dramatic don't you think? And besides, we've got a long day ahead."

"Camille, it's 12:30 and a _Saturday. _What you have planned can wait." I told her, shaking my head.

"Actually it can't."

I sighed and rested my head on my palm, turning to face her. "What do I have to do today anyway?"

"Not much. You just have to subtly run into the boys - again. But this time it won't be in the diner." She replied.

I narrowed my eyes in curiosity. "Where?"

~...~...~...~...~...~

"You've got to be kidding me!"

I stared through Camille's car window at the obviously-Irish bar - McGinty's.

"Yep." She replied cheerfully.

I turned my head and narrowed my eyes at her. "No."

"Oh c'mon," She whined, pouting slightly. "It's not that bad."

My eyes widened in disbelief and I gestured to the bar. "Not that bad? I'm _seventeen_! What part of this isn't bad?"

"Uh...the spying part?" She asked sheepishly. I rose my eyebrows at her and she sighed. "Oh don't be such a drama-queen, you don't even have to drink."

I sighed and let my head fall back against the seat. "What do I have to do?"

"It's easy. It's about," She glanced at her watch. "7ish, so the boys should be in there. All you have to do is walk in and ask the bartender where the bathroom is. Then you have to make them notice you. They're weirdly friendly so they'll probably ask you to stick around, but only if you do this right." She pointed a finger at me warningly. "You'd better do it right."

I nodded, my eyes wide. "Sure thing. But what do I do if they ask me to have a drink with them? I can't exactly tell 'em I'm too young to drink!"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Of course you can, they'll just assume you're twenty or nineteen. It wouldn't be lying, it'd be an omission."

"Remind me again how you wound up working at a strip-club?"

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "Beauty gets more than brains. Now go in that bar and get this plan going."

"Sure." I opened the door but paused as a sudden thought hit me. "Wait a sec, is this why you spend the day whoring me up?" I gestured to my clothes.

"Hey! I did not whore you up. But you had that adorable high-school vibe going, we needed to give you a sexy vibe." She replied.

"Did you ever think that the 'High-School-Vibe' I have might be there because I actually _am _in High School?" I questioned.

She glared. "Just get in the bar. I'll be around the corner, promise."

I nodded and backed away from the car, crossing my arms as she took off down the road.

"If only she used that brain for good stuff." I muttered before turning and heading into the bar.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note:

Hey Readers!

Okay first of all, I know it was a bit mean leaving you all on a cliffie, but it had to be done. ;)

On another subject, I have no drinking history whatsoever. The extent of my drinking would be vodka and boost (energy drink) and that was about two years ago. So if I get anything wrong with the alcohol bits in this chapter I do apologise, but I'm just basing it on how the other writers have got it down in their stories.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Some days I loved my big sister, other days I wanted to strangle her to death. And as soon as I walked into that bar, it was the latter.

The bar itself was a _lot _bigger than it appeared on the outside, but I suppose that was the deal with most buildings. But with me being seventeen, I'd never seen the inside of a bar or night-club before. So I was pretty much taking in everything. But the size and appearance of the bar wasn't what was worrying me - it was the amount of people. Considering it was only 7-ish there were a lot more people than I thought there would be. But this _was _an Irish neighbourhood, and from what Camille had been repeatedly telling me, these people drank at all times of the day.

I wrung my hands nervously as I approached the bar, slowly managing to lift myself up onto one of the stools. I wasn't exactly small for my age, but most of the people in the room were a lot older than me, so I felt like a mouse around them.

"What can I get ye lass?"

I looked up to see an old man behind the bar, patiently waiting for my answer.

"I...uh...I'm too young to drink." I sheepishly admitted. "But I was wondering if I could use the bathroom?"

He nodded and waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. Bathrooms through that door and to your right." He motioned to the door across the room.

"Thanks." I smiled before jumping down from my stool.

I'd somehow managed to weave my way through the crowd of people and through the door, only to find myself in a dimly-lit hallway. It wasn't hard to find the bathroom, but that wasn't quite what I was looking for. But thankfully, the phone was in clear view.

I sighed in relief and rushed towards the object, frantically dialling in the number as I held the phone to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Jade, I'm seriously freaking out right now." I whispered, my tone full of nervousness.

"Grace? Where the hell are you?"

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "McGinty's, it's this Irish bar..."

"You're in the Irish part of town?!" She exclaimed, cutting me off.

"Yes Jade, I'm in the Irish part of town."

I heard her groan on the other end. "What the heck are you doing there?!"

"Camille dumped me here. It's to get the plan moving, apparently the guys are here but..."

"Woah, woah, woah," She started, once again cutting me off. "Are you telling me that these guys are Irish? Like accents and everything?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes Jade, now focus. I'm freaking out here!"

"Okay Grace, you need to calm down. Just suck it up and get on with it." She replied in a reassuring tone.

"Jade I'm so out of place right now, the guys here are huge!" I silently exclaimed.

"Well, yeah. Most foreign guys are." She joked.

I narrowed my eyes in annoyance. "Jade I'm serious. Maybe I should just quit this whole thing."

"No, no, no!" She shouted. I held the phone away from my ear for a moment. "Just don't quit. You've done good so far, just take a deep breath and get back in there."

"You're right," I sighed, putting a hand to my forehead. "I'm just a little stressed."

"I don't blame you, I'd never be able to do what you're doing right now. Just try not to drink too much Gracie, older guys are seriously touchy around drunk girls."

"Jade! That doesn't make me feel any better!"

She sighed. "Grace, chill out! Now put on your big-girl panties, get back into the bar, and flirt with some hot Irish guys. If not for your sister then do it for me."

I smiled in amusement and leaned back against the wall. Jade always knew how to cheer me up.

"Fine, but just for you."

"There's my girl. Now call me later, if you can. Later bitch."

"Slut."

I waited until the line went dead before placing the phone back onto the holder. I'd never been more nervous in my boring seventeen years of existence. Well, apart from my first time, but that was another story all together. All I had to remember was that this was for a good cause, I was punishing a man-whore - in Camille's words of course. I just had to pluck up enough courage to walk back into that bar and find the twins.

A silent thudding noise reached my ears and I turned my head, my eyes immediately widening at the sight before me.

I almost instantly recognized the guy as Murphy, but I'd never seen the girl before. She had long dark-brown hair that reached her waist, although only a few strands were free - the rest of her hair being bunched up in his fist. She wore a bright-red crop top, ripped denim mini-skirt and red pumps. There was no way I'd be telling Camille about it though.

Unfortunately for me, the near-enough-fucking couple were in the middle of the narrow hallway. Resulting in only one option for me; Disturb them. I'd only planned on running into Murphy in the bar, but this was going to have to do. He'd most likely class me as a cock-blocker from then on, although it would probably depend on how 'classy' his new conquest was. And considering their current position, I was guessing not very.

I took a deep breath and slowly made my way towards the kissing couple, shoving my hands into the front pockets of my shorts out of nervousness.

"Uh...can I get through?"

Both heads turned to me, but while the girl merely shrugged and tried to get his lips again, his eyes remained on me. Although they were wide with surprise.

"Grace?"

I nodded in confirmation and he chuckled, moving away from his 'date'. Although he kept his hands where they were.

"What the fuck are ye doing here?"

I shrugged and crossed my arms. "Needed to use a bathroom. What are you doing here?"

"Isn' it obvious?" He gestured to the woman pressed against the wall and I nodded, slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah. Anyway, can I get through?" I repeated, feeling quite awkward.

"Oh yeah, course." He moved himself closer to the woman, allowing a small gap between his back and the opposite wall.

I bit my lip and sighed before moving forward, thanking god for my small body as I successfully managed to get through the gap.

"So ye headin' home now?"

"Probably, nothing better to do right?" I shrugged.

He nodded and quickly pecked the girls' lips before replying. "I guess. But me brother's in the bar, I'm sure he's got somethin' for ye to do."

"Alright. Well, have fun - I guess." I muttered before turning and heading back towards the bar. But as I walked, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl against the wall. She was going to have a nasty surprise in the following days.

~...~...~...~...~...~

As soon as I entered the room, I searched for the other brother. Since Murphy was so occupied with his latest woman, I knew it would give me a better chance of getting Connor's attention. And as nervous as I felt, I just repeated to myself that this was for Camille. The revenge Murphy would get, he obviously deserved.

It wasn't very difficult to find him. He was sitting at the bar, occasionally chatting to one of the other men while practically gulping down his beer. But even though he was alone, it didn't stop the tingles in my stomach - and not the good kind.

"Hey there stranger." I greeted, lightly tapping his right arm.

He turned to me with a confused expression, although it soon disappeared as he realised who it was that called him.

"Well if it isn' little Gracie," He smirked, turning so that he fully faced me. "What are ye doin' here?"

I shrugged and once again pulled myself up onto the high bar-stool. "Needed to use the bathroom. Ran into your brother back there, looked like he was having a good time."

He scoffed and rolled his eyes, taking another sip of the beer.

"What? Not jealous are you?" I joked, resting my forearms on the bar.

"O' course not, jus' a little tired of me brother shagging everything with a good pair o' legs." He replied.

"I know the feeling." I sighed as Camille came to mind.

His eyes narrowed with curiosity. "You got a brother?"

I shook my head. "Sister."

"She get around or somethin'?" He chuckled.

"You have _no _idea."

He nodded and glanced at the old bartender before turning back to me.

"Fancy a drink?"

"No, I don't have any money." I objected, trying to not pull out the 'I'm-too-young-card' any sooner than I had to.

He rolled his eyes. "C'mon lass, what kind'a man would I be if I let ye buy it yerself?"

"A sensible-thinking guy." I shrugged.

"How's that then?" He questioned, leaning forward slightly.

I smiled slightly and took a deep breath before replying. "Well, if you keep buying girls drinks all night then you'll find yourself broke by Monday. And you'd only be getting drunk - probably sloppy - sex so it's not like you'd be getting anything out of it."

His eyes widened slightly and I inwardly groaned as my words repeated in my head.

"You tryin' to insinuate somethin' Gracie?"

"What? No...I mean...I just, didn't mean it to come out like that." I rambled, rubbing my forehead in frustration.

"It's alright lass, don' strain yerself." He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes at him. "_Besides, _I can't drink."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Cant or won't?"

"_Can't. _I'm too young to drink." I admitted, wincing slightly as his eyebrows rose in shock.

"Is dat right?"

I nodded sheepishly, glancing around the bar. "Yup."

He threw an arm around my shoulder - to my complete surprise - and leaned in closer. "Then it'll jus' 'ave to be our little secret, eh lass?"

Now, I was no virgin, but I hadn't been that close to a guy since the 'First-Time'. So him actually being that close gave me tingles - the good kind this time.

"Sure." I muttered.

He smirked and slowly moved back before turning to face the old bartender.

"Eh Doc! Two pints over 'ere!"


	7. Chapter 7

I'd lost count of how many beers I'd actually drank, but in all honesty I didn't care. I didn't even know what time it was. And considering it was my first ever time drinking, it wasn't that bad. Sure the beer had a weird aftertaste to it, but I got used to it after about three more. Plus, it was strangely addictive. Unfortunately I'd left my watch at home on the nightstand, so I had no idea what time it was, or how long Camille had been parked around the corner. But that wasn't what I was concentrating on - Connor was.

The guy was charming, easy to talk to, and funny as hell. But I knew all those things would eventually get to me. I was easily guilt-tripped and usually my sympathy got the better of me. I'd always had a very bad guilty-conscience, and I knew that the more I was around him, the harder it would be for me to carry on with the plan. But until that day came, I was going to try my best to stick to it.

"Fuck! Ass!"

I glanced at the old bartender before turning back to Connor.

"Someone piss him off or something? He's been doing that all night." I questioned, gesturing to the old man.

"Who Doc?" I nodded in response and he shrugged. "Nah. He's got Tourette's, and a stutter. Poor man don't have it too easy."

"Yikes." I sighed.

He nodded and turned back to me, his eyes narrowed slightly.

"So tell me somethin'," He started. I nodded and tilted my head to show that I was listening. "How did ye know Murph was me brother? I don' remember tellin' ye."

The word 'Shit' sprang to mind and I wrung my hands nervously, averting my eyes for a moment. It was time to use my amazing lying ability's.

"Well," I dragged out, crossing one leg over the other. "You both dress the same, for one thing."

"That could be a coincidence lass, a lot of people dress the same. Don' make 'em brothers."

I rolled my eyes at him. "That wasn't what gave you away."

His eyebrows raised. "Really?" I nodded and he leaned forward. "Well then, what did me and me brother do to give it away?"

"Your eyes." I replied, smiling slightly. "I realised it when we were in the diner. You both have the exact same gorgeous blue eyes." I rested my left temple on my fist so that my head was tilted slightly. Camille had labelled it my 'Innocent-Girl' look.

He stared down at me for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head. "Little flirt aren't ye?"

I shrugged. "I try, makes life easier."

"That it does."

As he took a long drag of the cigarette between his middle and index finger, another question popped up in my mind. One that I was actually curious about.

"So, who's the older brother?"

He released the smoke from his mouth - thankfully away from my face - before replying. "We don' know, our ma never told us."

My eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Wait, how don't you know who's older? Wouldn't you be able to tell with the age difference?"

Now I knew the boys were twins, but I wanted to hear it from him. It would save my ass if I slipped up again.

"We're _twins _Gracie." He smirked.

"I don't believe it."

He shrugged. "Well it's true. _But _I don' blame ye for 'avin' yer doubts. I mean, look at me," He gestured to himself with his left hand. "And look at Murph. You're probably wonderin' how a hot bloke like me is related to that thing back there." He then waved towards the hall to the bathrooms, where his brother had last been spotted.

I smiled in amusement and released a small giggle, taking another sip of the beer afterwards.

He nodded and his eyes flickered down towards my chest, remaining there for a few seconds. And just when I was beginning to suspect him of being a complete perv', he finally spoke.

"Tha's a nice necklace."

Inwardly sighing in relief, I looked down at my family pendant, holding it between my thumb and forefinger.

"Yeah, it's a family necklace. One of a kind...well, three of a kind I suppose." I shrugged.

"What d'ya mean?" He questioned, taking the pendant into his own hand, inspecting it further.

The pendant itself was a silver circle with a black tree in the middle, and multiple colourful jewels had been stuck onto the pendant so that it didn't look so plain.

Ignoring the small tingle I felt as his hand grazed my upper chest, I kept my eyes on his face.

"Well, like I said it's a family necklace. There are three; My mom has one, my sister has one, and I have one. You wouldn't know they were different unless you saw them up close. The branches on the tree are swirls, the one's on my mom's and sister's necklace are normal looking branches. But they all have jewels on them. My mom had them made for us when we were born, we never take them off." I explained.

He finally released my necklace and leaned back, obviously done with the inspection.

"It is beautiful lass."

I nodded and took another sip of the beer. "So tell me, how drunk do you plan on getting me tonight?"

"I don' know what ye mean." His attempt at an innocent voice was comical.

"Oh come on, you've been buying me beer all night. What are you up to?" I teased, crossing my arms on the bar.

He shrugged and a small smirk appeared on his face. "Not up to anythin'."

"Hmm, of course." I said, my tone full of sarcasm.

He raised an eyebrow and aimed his index finger my way. "I'll 'ave you know I'd rather not get girls drunk, make's 'em useless."

My jaw dropped at his revelation, but I laughed either way. "You are unbelievable!"

"That's what they tell me." He winked, taking another drag of the cigarette.

"I doubt they mean it in the way you think it." I scoffed.

A mock-hurt look appeared on his face. "Oi! If ye must know I've had a lot of compliments in me life!"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I consider meself a bit of a ladies-man to be fair."

I smirked, narrowing my eyes slightly. "Okay Casanova, tell me something though. If you're such a 'ladies-man' then why aren't you back there?" I gestured to the bathroom hallway where a lot of couples seemed to be headed.

"Well lass, you've been 'ere for about," He looked back before turning to face me again. "Three hours now. I'd say I'm halfway there."

My jaw dropped for a moment but I easily composed myself. "Not that kind of girl, but good come-back."

"Yeah, I thought so too."

I chuckled and rolled my eyes, though a little nagging question in the back of my mind came back.

"Connor,"

"Yeah Gracie?"

I tried to plan my words out carefully before releasing the question.

"Does it ever...bother you, when Murphy does that stuff? I mean, do you ever feel bad for the girls?"

He sighed and averted his eyes for a moment.

"I don' really think about it ta be honest lass. I mean, I've done it a couple a times too, so I can't judge 'im."

I nodded in understanding, though a wave of disappointment ran through me.

"Fair enough." I sighed.

"Don' get me wrong Grace, I've 'ad me fair share of relationships. But sometimes you can jus' tell when it ain't gonna work."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not judging you, Connor. My sister's done the exact same thing. People usually think it's feelings that keep the relationship going, but it's not. It's the sex, or lack of I suppose. Most people will do _anything _to get into someone's pants, even spend months hanging out with them. _But _when they get it, everything's gone. So many people mix up love and lust, it's hilarious actually."

It was only when I took another sip of the beer that I realised Connor was deadly silent. I looked up worriedly to see Connor with a look of confusion on his face - and slight amusement.

"Fuckin' 'ell."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What?"

"How do ye know so much about this stuff?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Like you said, my sister get's around. She's had her fair share of heartbreaks and I know what kind of guys are in this world, I'm a walking relationship-advisor."

"Tell you what lass, next time I get into something with a girl, I'll let ye know first. Get yer view on it since yer such a smart thing." He smirked, throwing an arm around my shoulder.

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "I don't know about that. I'm good at judging guys, _not_ girls."

He sighed over-dramatically. "A'right then."

"Don't do that." I groaned.

"Do what?" He questioned, completely confused.

"That voice," I sighed, shaking my head. "It's a 'Guilt-trip' voice. It makes you sound like someone shot your puppy and it drives me mad."

He smiled in amusement. "You're somethin' else lass."

"That's what they tell me." I sang, smirking slightly as I repeated his earlier words.

He playfully glared and I shrugged innocently in response.

"Wait a sec, I've been here for three hours?"

He nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Murphy's been back there for three hours?" I questioned, gesturing to the bathroom hall with my eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"Ye know Gracie, he has trouble in dat department, but it ain't for takin' too long to get there." He laughed.

Any other girl would have blushed or stuttered at the words, but I'd heard a lot worse from Camille. And his words were nothing compared to hers.

"Then where is he?"

"Well, there _is _a back door lass. Me guess is Murph' decided to take it back to Rocco's flat."

I narrowed my eyes curiously. "Rocco?"

"Our frien'." He shrugged. "Murph' and I usually take the girls we don' plan on seein' again to Rocco's place, dat way dey don' come after us."

I nodded slowly in thought, realising that it must've been where Murphy took Camille. No smart-enough man-whore would take a girl back to his _home, _it was a death risk. Especially if they weren't planning on seeing that girl again.

"Smart. Do you know what the time is?"

"'Bout ten-ish, why?"

I sighed and shook my head, knowing I'd have to get back to Camille. I'd gotten enough info - at least I thought so - so there was no reason for me to stick around.

"I gotta go." I shrugged, hopping down from the stool. But as I stood straight, I felt the effects of the alcohol hit me. It wasn't a large dizzy spell or anything, but I'd never drank before, so I felt a little dizzy, and strangely happy - content even.

"Ye sure? I don' think ye can walk 'ome like that lass." He said, surprisingly concerned.

"I'll be fine," I reassured, waving a hand. "I've dealt with my sister in worse states, this is nothing."

He got down from his own chair and followed me towards the door, holding it open as I exited.

"I thought I told you I'd be fine."

He rolled his eyes and chuckled slightly, placing an arm around my waist to keep me walking in a straight line.

"Ye women are all the same, say one thin' when ye actions are somethin' completely different."

I rolled my eyes at him as we walked down the road, and my sisters car soon came into view. Though as we neared, I knew I'd have to get rid of Connor. He might have seen her, and I couldn't risk the plan coming apart.

"I'll be fine from here." I told him, moving away from his arm so that I could turn to face him.

"Ye sure?" His eyes narrowed sceptically.

I placed both hands on his shoulders, staring up at him. "I'll be _fine. _Trust me on this. My sisters car is right there, but she can't know I was with a guy. She'll tease me for life and I can't be dealing with that."

I wasn't lying, Camille would most likely torment me for the rest of the week, considering how close I was to Connor.

"A'right Grace, it's a good thing ye don' wear heels though. Ye'd probably be on yer face by now."

"Told you, not that kind of girl. _But _I guess I'll see you around." I sighed, crossing my arms.

He nodded. "I guess. _Or _I could see ye at McGinty's tomorrow night."

I narrowed my eyes, a playful smirk appearing on my face. "You asking me out?"

He shrugged, rubbing his chin in mock-thought. "Well, I'm not sure since goin' out requires me actually havin' ta spend money. And a wise little thing tol' me not to spend money on girls. So technically speakin' I'm askin' ye in."

I giggled and rolled my eyes. "I guess I could make an appearance."

He nodded and took my right hand in his left, softly kissing my knuckles.

"Smooth move Romeo." I teased, though the move had a bigger effect than I'd let on.

"Ye ain't seen nothin' yet lass."

He winked and released my hand, making his way back into McGinty's.

I laughed to myself and crossed my arms, making my way towards Camille's car.


	8. Chapter 8

"No."

"Come on Grace!"

It was Sunday morning and thankfully, I hadn't spent most of the morning with my head in the toilet. I had though, spent the majority of my morning feel sick with a slight headache. And to make matters worse, Camille had made it her main priority to make the aching worse. We'd been arguing most of the morning over whether or not I would go to McGinty's that night. I was determined not to, she thought otherwise.

"I said no." I groaned, rubbing my temples as I laid down on the couch.

Camille let out an over-dramatic groan and fell onto the opposite couch. "Grace you _have _to. You already told him you'd go."

I shook my head. "No, I said - and I quote - I could make an appearance. Stress word; _Could. _Doesn't mean I will."

"Come on sis, you're so close to getting in with them. One more night and you'll be good to go."

I got to my feet and headed into the kitchen, pouring myself a glass of water and grabbing some pain-meds out of the cupboard.

"Camille, I'm tired and I feel sick. I'm staying home today."

"You can't! We're just getting started Grace," She followed me into the kitchen and pulled herself up onto the counter, facing me. "You can't _not _go tonight. It'll ruin everything."

I sighed and shook my head, downing the pain-meds with the water. "I don't know Camille. I mean, I feel really bad. I shouldn't but I do."

She jumped down from the counter and walked towards me, placing her hands on my shoulders while looking down at me. "Don't feel bad Grace. Murphy's a bad guy. He broke my heart and he'll do it to a thousand other girls after me if you don't do this."

My eyes widened slightly. The future of the slutty Boston girls' hearts depended on me - no pressure or anything.

"It's not Murphy I feel bad for, Camille."

She sighed knowingly. "Connor?"

I nodded in confirmation and she sighed again.

"Grace, you can't read too much into this. Look, you told me yourself they both do it. So you're basically getting back at both guys, making them pay for what they did."

"Camille, they sleep with girls and don't call, it's not like they're chopping the girls up afterwards." I said, rolling my eyes at her over-dramatic attitude towards everything.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Well they might as well be, because that's how much it hurts us. I mean, you wouldn't know because of your lack-of boyfriends."

I glared up at her. "Don't you dare tell me about how much it hurts, you know that I know better than anyone how it feels when that happens!"

I quickly dumped my empty glass into the sink before storming into the living room, falling down onto the couch with my arms crossed. Camille immediately followed, a guilty look on her face.

"Gracie, I'm so sorry, I just forgot about that." She sighed and kneeled in front of me, taking my hands in hers. "Look, just think of these guys as two more Dylan's. He did to you what they do to other girls, just keep that in mind the next time you feel guilty about all this."

"You're right," I muttered. "Sorry I snapped at you, it just hit a sore spot yah know?"

She nodded in understanding, moving up onto the couch and throwing an arm around my shoulders. "See? Us sisters have to stick together, guys just screw things up. Hell the only guy a girl can depend on is her daddy. It's you and me against 'em all Gracie."

I smiled and nodded, wrapping my own arm around her waist.

"You're right Camille, you're always right."

~...~...~...~...~...~

I once again entered McGinty's, feeling a lot more confident than I had the day before. Thankfully the sickness feeling had passed, along with the headaches. But the thing that wouldn't go away was the nervous tingles in my stomach. Sure I felt confident, but I was still nervous about the plan, despite Camille's speech of encouragement that morning.

Finding Connor was pretty easy. He was in the exact same spot as the night before, but unlike then, he was joined by his brother and another man. They all had half-empty pints, along with cigarettes between their fingers. Talking to Connor had been easier because he was alone, but he had company this time, making it even worse for me.

"Hey there stranger." I patted Connor's shoulder, crossing my arms as he turned to face me.

"Gracie!" He exclaimed, pulling me into an awkwardly positioned hug. He was taller than me in general and the stool he sat on only gave him extra height. So I was forced to stand between his legs in order for the hug to work.

"Wasn' sure ye'd come." He admitted as we both pulled back.

I shrugged. "I don't like to disappoint."

He smirked. "I'll bet."

One of the two men cleared their throat, bringing Connor back to reality.

"Shite, Grace this is Rocco," He gestured to the bearded man on his left, who nodded in greeting. "And you've met Murph." He then motioned to his brother, who sat on his right.

"Hi." I greeted.

"So, you're the little sex-advisor huh?" Rocco questioned, smirking at Connor.

My jaw dropped and Connor gave him a quick smack to the back of the head. "Relationship advisor Roc', _relationship _advisor." He corrected.

"Right, sorry. Relationship advisor." Rocco rubbed at the back of his head, earning a small laugh from me.

"Yeah, I guess you could call me that." I shrugged before turning to Connor. "What exactly did you tell them?"

He smiled sheepishly. "Nothin' lass, weren't much ta tell. You didn' exactly give me much las' night."

"Yeah well, not much to tell yah. I'm not that interesting."

"Well that's a load a bullshit. _But _before we get into dat, Roc' move yer ass."

Rocco's eyes widened at the demand. "What the fuck for?"

Connor gestured to me. "The lass needs somewhere ta sit, be a gentlemen for once Roc'."

I rolled my eyes and smiled in amusement. "You don't have to move Rocco."

"See! She said I could stay." He pointed to me and looked at the twins hopefully.

"I don' give a fuck, move yer ass!"

"Lass," I turned at Murphy's voice, focussing on him instead of the arguing pair. "Need a chair?" He moved a spare stool in between him and Connor, smirking in amusement.

"Thanks." I sighed, smiling gratefully as I hopped up onto the stool, resting my folded arms on the counter.

He shrugged and took a long drag of his cigarette. "Don' mention it."

I nodded and glanced back at Connor and Rocco, who were still arguing over the seat.

"Should we tell them I have a seat?" I asked, gesturing to the two as I turned to Murphy.

"Nah," He shook his head, blowing out the smoke. "It 'appen's all the time. They'll realise it soon."

"So," I dragged out, turning so that I fully faced him. "How did things go with that girl last night?"

His eyebrows raised and he tilted his head. "You serious lass?"

"What?"

"Well, most girls don' wanna know about that kinda stuff."

I rolled my eyes. "Like I told your brother last night, I'm not like most girls."

He nodded. "A'right. Well, it went pretty good, for the mos' part."

"What do you mean?" I leaned forward slightly, a little intrigued.

"Well lass, it was 'cause o' ye."

My eyes widened in disbelief. "Me?"

"Yeah lass, ye."

"What? I mean...how?"

He shrugged, resting his head on his palm. "She wanted ta know how I knew ye. I told 'er ye were jus' a friend, she didn' believe me o' course, thought ye were an ex or somethin'. So we didn' get very far."

"Wait a sec," I sighed, shaking my head. "_You _couldn't have sex with a girl because you talked to me?"

He nodded in confirmation and I inwardly screamed with joy. By talking to me, the girl had jumped to conclusions and assumed he'd had something going on with me. Which meant things would most likely go a lot smoother than I thought - in the 'cock-blocking' Murphy department anyway.

"Yikes, sorry about that."

"It's a'right, not yer fault."

I nodded, feeling slightly smug with how his night turned out.

"So Gracie," I smiled and turned to face Connor, who'd finally stopped his argument with Rocco. "Why don' we get some drinks down ye?"

I groaned. "No Connor, I had a less than eventful morning."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah. I never drank before last night." I shrugged.

"Ye tellin' me ye were an alcohol virgin lass?"

I narrowed my eyes slightly. "Yeah."

"And I bought ye yer first?"

"Don't look so smug Connor." I told him, rolling my eyes.

He chuckled. "Hard not ta be Gracie."

"Either way, I'm not drinking tonight. No fricking way."

He turned in his seat, once again raising his eyebrows at me, with a slight smirk on his face. "Oh really?"


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note:

Hi readers! I know it's annoying when I keep putting up the notes, but I wanted to thank you again for reviewing.

On another subject though, I have to admit that I've never been to Boston. I live in the UK and have never been outside my Country, so none of the street names I put in the story are actually in Boston. They might be, but I'm just making them up as I go. Just giving you a little heads-up about it.

Anyway, thanks for reading and review you can. :)

* * *

Two hours and god-knows how many beers later I found myself in one of the booths, Rocco on my left with the twins opposite us. It was around 9:30 and any other Sunday I'd be at home, watching TV or doing my homework. But no, instead I was out carrying on with my sisters revenge-plan. And even though I knew I would definitely regret drinking in the morning, I couldn't stop. It was taking the edge off, and I found myself addicted to the feeling. Plus, the men surrounding me managed to spin my head away from all the stress with their amusing fights and teases. But I realised the more I listened and talked to them, the less enthusiastic I was about screwing Murphy over. Not that I'd ever tell Camille about it.

"So Gracie," I pulled myself out of my thoughts as Connor spoke. "What do ye do?"

I tilted my head, slightly confused. "Hmm?"

"Where do ye work lass?" He clarified, chuckling slightly.

I inwardly sighed and thought for a moment. Sure I worked, my parents made sure I started working once I turned sixteen. So I'd tell them, but I also had to wonder just how much information I'd have to give them. But hopefully they wouldn't ask for that much.

"I work at a pet store." I shrugged, crossing my arms on the table.

"Really now? Which one?"

"I don't think I should tell you. Don't want to get myself stalked now do I?"

"We're not the stalking type lass." Murphy chuckled.

Connor shook his head and pointed at his brother. "Ye sure about dat? I do remember you bein' slightly infatuated with a lass once, couldn' stay away from 'er."

The comment earned him a light hit to the head, something the two seemed to do to each other quite a bit.

"I don' get infatuated ye fuckin' ass! The girl's follow me, _not _the other way aroun'."

I leaned forward, slightly curious. "Girls actually stalk you guys?"

Both boys turned away from each other, facing me instead.

"Well, not since we started takin' 'em back to Roc's." Connor shrugged.

"Aye, after this dumb asses one-night stand went wrong we had to stop takin' people back home." Murphy added, smirking slightly.

"What happened?" I questioned, resting my head on my palm.

"Ye know lass, ye seem awfully curious about our love live's," Connor started, trying to steer the conversation away from him. "I wanna know about yers."

"Aye," Murphy agreed. "Tell us about yer's lass, if ye can o' course."

I tilted my head at him. "What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "Well, pretty little thing like ye mus' o' had lots of boyfriend's."

I smiled in amusement while Connor shot him a look of disbelief and annoyance.

"Really?"

"What?" The dark-haired brother shrugged, a confused expression on his face.

"She ain't gonna sleep with ye Murph, so stop hittin' on 'er."

"The night is young my dear brother." Murphy shrugged, winking at me afterwards.

"Aye, but I don' think ye'll ever get 'er dat drunk."

"Boys!" Rocco exclaimed, earning their attention. "Maybe she doesn't go for foreigners, maybe she wants an Italian."

I giggled at their expressions as their friend placed an arm around my shoulders, taking another gulp of his beer as he did.

"If yer Italian den dat make's ye foreign as well ye dumb-ass!" Murphy exclaimed, both brothers laughing at Rocco's embarrassment.

"Oh fuck you both." He mumbled, pulling his arm back.

"So take us out of our misery lass, what kind o' boys do ye go for?" Connor asked, leaning forward slightly.

The sudden attention to me was quite scary, considering I'd never had three guys' attention before. Usually Camille was the one with guys hanging onto her every word. So having the complete attention of these guys was making me nervous.

"I don't exactly have a 'type'." I finally replied, tapping my fingernails against the table - a result of how fidgety I became when I had people's attention.

"Fine den, what's yer lucky number?" Murphy asked, leaning against the wall to his right.

"My lucky number?" My eyes narrowed our of confusion and curiosity.

"How many people you fucked." Rocco clarified, finally done with his pouting.

I nodded in understanding, but suddenly became nervous again. My number - that wasn't even close to lucky - wasn't very impressive.

"How about this," I offered, leaning forward against the table. "I ask a question, you guys ask a question. If you don't answer then..." I paused, trying to think of something punishable.

"Ye 'ave ta take a shot." Murphy finished, earning a nod of approval from his brother.

"I'll go grab 'em!" Rocco exclaimed excitedly, rushing towards the bar a few feet away.

Now the only thing I'd been drinking so far was the beer, but I had a feeling that if I did take a shot, I'd be worse off in the morning. Camille had tried them, with her being a party-girl and everything, and told me that it tasted horrible and weird. She usually told me this stuff after coughing up everything in her stomach, so when Murphy declared the shot punishment, my stomach went crazy. The only option was for me to answer every question they threw my way, either that or take a shot and risk ending up exactly like my big-sister in the morning. Something I was _not _looking forward to.

"Here we are!" The Italian suddenly exclaimed, placing a tray full of shots on the table. "I had no money, so I just told Fuck-Ass over there that you boys would cover it." He added, smiling sheepishly at the brothers.

"No worries Roc', this'll be worth it I'm sure." Connor reassured, smirking my way.

"So, who's gonna start?" I asked, ignoring the nervous tingles in my stomach.

"I will," Murphy rushed as Rocco opened his mouth.

"Damn." Rocco sighed, lightly smacking the table in frustration.

The twin smirked and turned to me. "So Grace, what _is _yer lucky number?"

I knew that question would be the first from one of the twins, and as embarrassed as I was about telling it, I was determined not to drink that shot.

"One."

A spray of beer flew across the table, successfully hitting Rocco on the face.

"Fuck Murph!" He exclaimed, wiping at his wet face.

The twins said nothing, instead choosing to stare at me in both disbelief and confusion.

"Ye can' be serious." Murphy said, shaking his head slightly.

I shrugged in response. "I don't know what to tell yah, it was my first time and I haven't done it since."

"But...I mean...look at ye." Connor stuttered.

"I have no idea how to take that."

He shook his head at me. "No I jus' mean, yer fuckin' gorgeous lass. Seriously? One guy?" He held up his index finger as he said it.

"One guy." I confirmed, smiling slightly at the compliment.

"Well fuck me."

I rolled my eyes at the two, running my finger across the rim of the beer glass in front of me.

"_Anyway_, my turn." I stated, desperate to get the game moving on and away from my first - and last - time. "I know you guys aren't identical twins, but have you ever tried to trick anyone with the twin thing?"

"Well, it's kind o' hard when yer not identical, but we've done a few things." Connor replied, looking slightly smug about it.

"Aye, we switched name's once, jus' ta see what 'appened." Murphy added.

"How did that go?" I asked, taking a small sip of the beer.

"Well, it was weird. If someone called Connor, den dey were talkin' ta me. An' if someone called me, dey were talkin' ta Connor. An' you can imagine what 'appened with the sex." Murphy said, shaking his head at the memory.

Connor nodded, laughing slightly. "Aye, he damn-near shite 'imself when the lass moaned out _my _name when he was the one kissin' 'er."

I giggled at Murphy's annoyed expression, actually wishing I'd seen his shocked face in that moment.

"Don' ye dere try dat! Ye crapped yerself jus' as much when the girl _screamed _my name when ye were doin' 'er." The dark-haired twin retorted, laughing afterwards.

Connor narrowed his eyes. "Oh fuck ye."

"Okay, okay. I got a question," Rocco announced, earning our attention. "Why only one guy?" The question was obviously directed at me.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "It just hurt so much the first time I swore I'd never do it again. Plus the guy was a huge douche-bag."

"Ye actually swore to never have sex again?" He asked, a look of complete disbelief on his face.

"Yep."

"Christ lass." Murphy muttered, shaking his head.

"Lords name." Connor told him, earning an eye-roll from his brother.

"I just, don't see what's so good about sex." I admitted.

The looks I got from the men when those words escaped my mouth, I couldn't describe. It was a mix between disbelief, confusion, and some amusement.

"Ye can' be serious." Connor pleaded.

"Oh I'm serious." I confirmed, shrugging afterwards. "I mean, it's always good for the guys but never for the girls. All you boys want is the cookie."

"The what?" Rocco asked, his head resting on his closed fist.

"The cookie. It's what my sister calls her...well, you know." I gestured down at my lower-half and they all nodded in understanding.

"That's a fair point Gracie, but not _all_ guys are like dat." Murphy stated.

"Aye, some guys actually _like _to get the girls goin', it's a pretty big ego-booster." Connor added.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah well, I have yet to find a guy like that."

"Maybe ye already have."

"Either way," I sighed, shaking my head at the slight hint he threw my way. "I swore to never do it again, end of story."

"Not the end lass, one of us'll turn ye mind 'round at some point." Murphy shrugged.

"Maybe, but not tonight. What time is it anyway?" I asked, holding back a yawn.

He glanced at the clock on the wall before turning back to me. "Nearly ten."

I sighed, knowing I'd have to get home. If I didn't I knew I'd carry on drinking, and wouldn't be able to go to school the next morning, or work afterwards.

"I gotta go." I told them, getting to my feet.

They all groaned in protest.

"C'mon Grace, stay for another beer at least." Murphy begged.

I shook my head at him. "Sorry, maybe another night."

"I'll hold ye to it." He smirked, pointing warningly.

"I'll bet." I giggled. "Anyway, see you round guys."

I waved at the three before exiting the bar, feeling slightly woozy as I did. Like last night though it wasn't enough to make me sick, or make me feel like I had vertigo, but it was enough to make my walking slightly wavy.

It wasn't freezing outside, but it was enough to make me shiver and wrap my arms around myself. Camille should have been on the corner waiting, like she told me she would be. But as I squinted, I couldn't see any trace of the familiar blue car. The street was nearly empty, with it being Sunday night and everything, people were most-likely sleeping by now, getting some good sleep in before work tomorrow. Something I should have been doing myself.

"You a'right there lass?"

I flinched and looked back to see Connor leaning against the wall next to the door, a cigarette in hand.

"Yeah, just looking for my sister." I replied, once again scanning the street.

"Well Gracie, doesn' look like she's around." He moved forward until he was stood right next to me.

"I know," I sighed, inwardly cussing out my sister. "I have no idea how I'm gonna get home."

"Why don' ye jus' call a taxi?"

"Because I didn't bring any money with me." I sheepishly admitted, biting my bottom lip.

"That's because ye knew us lads would be buyin' for ye all night." He chuckled.

I smiled in amusement, rolling my eyes slightly. "Well, it wasn't like you gave me a say in it."

He threw an arm around my shoulder, lightly tugging me into his side as he leaned down. "Wasn' like ye were complainin'."

Rolling my eyes - again - I turned to him, inwardly jumping as I realised how close we were. And instead of pulling away - like I should have - my drunkenly-confident mind convinced me to lean into him more. I wound my left arm around his waist, resting my head against his chest.

"So, how do you propose I get home?"

He sighed over-dramatically. "_Well_, I could be a complete jack-ass an' let ye walk 'ome alone, in this cold weather in the middle o' the night. _But _my ma raised me better, so I'm gonna call ye a taxi."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion, looking up at him. "But I have no money."

"I'll pay for ye Gracie, don' worry 'bout it." He reassured, sounding slightly amused.

"But...I don't know how to pay you back."

He rolled his eyes and turned so that we were face-to-face. "Don' worry 'bout it, I'll think o' somethin'. Now c'mon, ye ain't stayin' out 'ere alone."

I nodded and smiled, letting him lead me back into the bar.

~...~...~...~...~...~

"Are you _sure _about this?" I once again asked, turning to face him as I leaned against the cab.

"Stop askin' Gracie, I'm _positive_. Now go home lass, stop stressin'." He reassured.

I sighed in annoyance. Men _never _did something for a girl unless they got something from it, yet here he was paying for me to get home, even though I wasn't giving him anything for it. It was pretty confusing for me.

"C'mon Connor, there has to be something you want back from me!"

He narrowed his eyes slightly. "What do ye think I want from ye?"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't know. Sex, blow-job, something around that general area since I'm pretty sure you don't need or want money from me."

"What kind o' guys you been around lass?" He asked, both amused and curious.

"Jerks. So c'mon, what is it you want? You probably won't get it but I'm still curious."

He sighed in thought. "Well, maybe dere is somethin'."

Bingo. Finally something that made sense to me.

"Where do ye work?"

That was not what I expected.

"Come again?"

He chuckled. "Where do ye work lass?"

"Bella's Pet-Store. It's down the road from this Catholic Church further into town, on Clark Street. Why?"

He once again sighed over-dramatically, causing me to roll my eyes for the tenth time that night.

"_Because, _I wanna see ye again."

I smiled slightly, my brain slightly frazzled from either the booze or his announcement.

"Really?"

He nodded. "Aye."

"I work Monday's and Thursdays, four till seven."

"Den I guess I'll see ye soon Gracie."

He took both my hands in his and raised them to his face, kissing the back of both hands before releasing them.

"Charming." I smiled.

He shrugged. "Tol' ye dere was more."

The cab behind us beeped and I rolled my eyes.

"I guess I'll see you around?" I asked, pulling the cab door open.

"Definitely Gracie."

He shut the door after I entered, handing me some cash through the open window before leaning back and patting the top of the cab.

"Where to?" The driver questioned as we started to move.

"Millstone Road." I replied, smiling to myself as I stared out the window.


	10. Chapter 10

I walked into my usual classroom, sighing tiredly as I fell into my seat.

I'd barely gotten any sleep thanks to last night's drinking, and to make matters worse my head was aching. The pain-meds I'd taken about half an hour before I arrived had yet to kick in, along with the sickness I was waiting to pass. Apparently I'd drank a lot more than I thought, and just as I thought, I was feeling the effects. But I'd still managed to get my ass to school. Though it was only to get away from the annoyingly-pestering Camille, who I knew would question me the moment she woke up. Which is why I left the house as soon as I could.

"Hey bitch, how'd it go?" Jade greeted, settling down into the seat to my left. I groaned and shook my head. "Yikes. That bad, huh?"

"No, night was good. Morning-afters were bad." I replied, downing some more water and hoping the sickness would go away.

Jade smiled. "Yeah, alcohol will do that to yah."

"I think I'm gonna puke."

"Don't think about it, just tell me what happened over the weekend." She leaned forward in her seat, looking both excited and intrigued.

"I don't wanna talk." I sighed, folding my arms on the table before resting my head on top.

"Uh-uh, no way!" She exclaimed, earning the attention of a few classmates.

Despite my sickness feeling increasing as I did it, I continued to shoot up into a sitting position, glancing around with wide eyes.

"Jade, shut up." I hissed.

She raised her eyebrows in a challenging manner. "Tell me. Because if you don't, the whole class will get to know just how loud I can scream."

"I'm pretty sure most of the people in our school know how loud you scream." I giggled, feeling smug as her jaw dropped.

"I'm not that slutty, and for your information I do _not _scream. But c'mon Grace, just tell your BFF what happened."

I sighed and smiled in amusement, shuffling my chair closer to hers. "Fine. Okay, so Friday..."

"Good Morning class!"

The whole class groaned and Jade narrowed her eyes at our teacher, knowing that she wouldn't be finding anything out until the end of the class.

"I'll tell you later." I reassured her, moving my chair back to its original place.

"So, I hope you're all ready for the trip today."

Groans filled the room and my eyes widened. No one had told me anything about a trip.

"What the heck?" I whispered to Jade.

Her expression was also one of surprise. "Don't look at me, they stopped telling people about these trips years ago. My brother told me about 'em. Because we're in our last year, the teachers decided it would be good to take out the seniors to a few work places. Some good, some bad. Just to show us what work is out there, for those who do good in school and for those who don't. But they stopped telling people because they realised kids weren't showing up on trip days. Now they kind of just throw it at us, sucks but it's pretty smart."

I shrugged, and despite my annoyance I had to agree with her - it was pretty smart.

"Fair enough, so where are we going today anyway?"

She was about to reply when the teacher did it for her. "Today's visit will be the Boston Meat-Packing Plant, just to show you teenagers what happens when you don't study." As he said it, he chose to directly stare at a few students in the class.

"Great," Jade muttered sarcastically. "Just what we need, a boring trip to the Meat Factory."

I nodded in agreement, letting my head fall back onto the desk.

~...~...~...~...~...~

"And finally, do any of you faint at the sight of blood?"

I rolled my eyes, looking to my left to see Jade off in her own world - as usual.

After borrowing the school-bus, our teacher - Mr Lake - had drove us into town and straight to the Meat Plant. But apparently before we could actually enter the building, the guy in charge had to run through some routine questions; If we were vegetarian, if we were against animal slaughter, if we became nauseas or dizzy around certain smells, and of course if we fainted at the sight of blood. But if I was being completely honest, I wouldn't mind seeing someone in our class faint. It would certainly bright up the soon-to-be-boring day.

"I think that's it." Mr Lake told him, noticing that none of us spoke up at the question. But for sake of pride and dignity, I was sure no one would speak up even if they were dodgy around meat.

"Okay, well if you're all fine, just follow me inside. And try not to wonder off, it's a dangerous place if yah don't know what you're doing." The man told us, sounding quite bored. Not that I blamed him, I'd be pissed off too if I found out I had to show some teenagers around a dangerous work-place, where risks of fainting and puking were high.

Our small group started to wonder inside and Jade linked her right arm through my left, something we always did when out together. As we entered, a strong smell reached my nose, and while it wasn't enough to make me puke, it did give me an uncomfortable feeling.

"That smell would be the meat, just ignore it and keep following!" The man instructed, having to yell slightly with the sound of machinery getting closer.

Pushing passed the plastic door curtains, I immediately scanned the large room, seeing nothing but weird machines, people, and cut up meat.

"Calm down, class." Mr Lake sighed, hearing a lot of disgusted groans from many girls in the group - Me not included.

"Calm down? He does smell this stuff right?" Jade asked, shaking her head as she covered her mouth and nose.

"Probably. Look, the sooner we get through this, the sooner we get back on that bus and back to the school." I said, trying to ease her whining. It would only make the day slower, and as much as I loved her, I wasn't sure if I could take it.

"I guess." She sighed, shrugging. Though her eyes widened at something behind me. "Oh shit."

"What?" I looked back in time to see Trix - one of Jade's cheerleaders - hit the deck.

She'd been one of the few stood pretty close to one of the machines that transported the meat on hooks, so her fainting wasn't very surprising to me. Though it was _very _amusing.

"Oh great," The man leading our group mumbled, rubbing his forehead stressfully.

I giggled as Mr Lake rushed down towards Trix, lifting her into his arms.

"What do we do?" He questioned, glancing at us as though we had the answers.

"Take her outside, get some fresh air in her. I'll carry on with the rest of your class." The man instructed. Mr Lake nodded, immediately heading out of the Plant with Trix. "Now, are any of you _positive _that you don't faint at the sight of blood?"

"Trix doesn't faint at the sight of blood, sir. She's a cheerleader, she's seen her fair share of blood splatters. But apparently she _does_ faint at the sight of uncooked cow meat dangling from a hook. That should've been one of the questions." Jade spoke up, earning a glare from him and a giggle from me.

"_Anyway,_" He stressed. "Moving on. Just follow me, and please no more faints."

The class nodded and grunted in response, and we carried on through the plant. But I could tell a lot of people were trying to resist puking.

"And this is where the meat is cut. We have to chop off bits and pieces for packaging, but it's pretty simple." He announced, once again stopping as we reached another part of the plant.

The machines all seemed to be looking the same to me, and it didn't help that the meat and people dressed in coats looked exactly the same either. But when I scanned the room, my heart-beat sped up as I recognized two of the many people in the building. But it wasn't the good kind of fast-speed, it was the kind that made you think you'd have a heart-attack if you didn't leave the room.

"Oh shit Jade." I muttered.

"What? What did you see?" She asked, trying to figure out what was freaking me out.

My eyes widened at the very clear appearances of Connor and Murphy. Thankfully neither man had seen me yet, but with the way we were headed, I knew they soon would.

"That's them." I replied, nervously gesturing to the two.

Jade's eyes narrowed in confusion, however they soon widened to one of realisation. "Them as in the two Irish guys you're supposed to screw over?" I nodded in confirmation and she smiled. "Fuck, where?!"

My eyes widened in disbelief. "Jade!"

"What?!" She exclaimed, shaking her head. "I wanna see if this plan is really worth it or not."

"Jade, Jade what the heck are you doing?" I panicked, watching as she weaved her way through the workers, attempting to get closer to the two. "Jade get the fuck back here!" I silently exclaimed, repeatedly apologising to the workers as I followed her.

"Fuck me." She muttered once I finally reached her, both of us hidden behind a large machine.

"What?" I asked, the irritation clear in my voice.

"They are fricking gorgeous." She stated, leaning the top half of her body out to peer around the machine.

"Yeah well I did tell you." I sighed, doing the same.

She shook her head, a small smile on her face. "No, that was an understatement. These guys are...oh my gosh. How did it take so long for him to bed your sister? Which one did she fuck anyway?"

I looked up at her, my eyes narrowed in disbelief and annoyance. "Jade! But Camille slept with the dark-haired one, the one that keeps poking the guy in the side of the head."

"Holy fuck," She muttered. "So which one are you supposed to be going for?"

I sighed. "The one getting poked in the head."

"_That's _the guy you're supposed to get to?" She asked, leaning back so that she was fully hidden behind the machine. I did the same, nodding in confirmation. "Okay Grace, you cannot complain about this anymore, okay? You're not just doing this for Camille anymore, if you don't go out with that guy I think _I'll _kill you."

"You don't get it Jade! I should be doing this because I want to, not because Camille banged his brother. Look I was having doubts before but now this proves it, nothing good will come from this plan. I have to end it - tonight."

"Tonight? Why tonight? Are we looking at the same guys here?!" She exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes at her. "Yes, we're looking at the same guys. Which is exactly why I'm doing this! If I hadn't seen him first he would've seen me, and then what? Camille's plan would go straight down the drain. And I just realised that now I have to worry about running into him during school hours. It's bad enough I have to worry about Finals and studying, I can't be worrying about this too."

She nodded in understanding. "I guess. So, if you don't want him, can I have him?"

"Dude!" I exclaimed, laughing as I lightly slapped her arm.

"What?!"

"You have a _boyfriend_!" I re-capped, though I was smiling with amusement.

"Look whether I love Tommy or not. If that leprechaun offered me gold in exchange for sex, I wouldn't turn him down." She shrugged, leaving me both amused and in disbelief as she headed back to the group.

"You're unbelievable." I muttered, speeding after her.

* * *

Author's Note:

Sorry there wasn't much of Connor or Murphy in this one, but I felt the need to write this chapter. But one of the Boys will definitely be in the next Chapter. Until then, review if you can, and thanks for the reviews so far. :)


	11. Chapter 11

"Camille, I'm done."

"Oh c'mon Grace."

Getting out of things with Camille wasn't the easiest of task's, but I knew I couldn't carry on with her ridiculous plan. I'd been prepared for a _lot _of negativity and pleading from her, but I didn't have the time for it. Our conversation was supposed to be a simple get-it-done-and-get-out kind of deal, but she was making it a lot harder than it had to be. But I couldn't say I was completely surprised by it.

"No, I told you!" I exclaimed, once again picking up my shoulder bag.

I was supposed to be at the pet-store by four, and it was half past three. School finished at three, and the bus usually got me home by ten minutes passed. I'd already changed into my uniform; A red long sleeved T-shirt, blue jeans, and my usual grey ankle boots. I was good-to-go, but Camille wasn't going to let the plan go anytime soon.

"You're just having one of your temporary freak-outs, just calm down and re-think this." She said.

I groaned. "I _have _re-thought this thing! A lot! It's not going to work, Camille. Why wont you get that?"

She rolled her eyes. "You're just freaking out over nothing. This plan has worked so far, who says we won't get it all the way?"

"Camille, I saw them today, okay? On my school field-trip, I saw them. Did you know they worked in a Meat-Plant?" I asked, crossing my arms as I stood near the door.

"Maybe." She shrugged, a sheepish smile on her face.

I shook my head in disbelief. "I just can't believe you. Camille, get someone else to do it for you, because I'm _done_. Okay? Done."

"You're not done until I say you're done!" Her tone changed in a split-second. She somehow went from soothing and trying to calm me down, to pissed and acting like my boss.

"I'm not one of your whore friends that you think you can boss around because they're dumb-asses. I'm your _sister, _don't you get that?" I sighed, shaking my head.

She crossed her arms, leaning against the wall. "Yes, you are. Which is why you have more of a reason to do this, to help me."

I stared at her for a moment, running everything through my mind. I had to get out of the plan, I would go crazy if I didn't.

"No, Camille. Get someone else to do it. I'll be home later, okay?"

"No, not okay. Grace we planned this together, you can't just back out now." Her tone changed back to the sweet and kind sister, but I didn't like it.

"Look, can we talk about it later? I _really _need to get to work. Think you can give me a lift?" I asked hopefully. She always gave me a ride to work, but I knew which bus to take if she couldn't.

"Get the bus." She snapped, shooting my a quick glare before entering the living room.

I shook my head and sighed as I opened the front-door, and made my way towards the bus-stop.

~...~...~...~...~...~

I rushed into the small pet-store, repeatedly cussing out my big-sister.

The bus had come twenty minutes late, and it took at least ten minutes for the vehicle to get me to my destination. So at the end of it all, I was late for work. But thankfully it was my first time being late, and I'd never been more grateful that my Aunt owned the store.

"Nice to see you Grace." She greeted, wiping her hands with a towel as she entered the main part of the store.

"Hi Belle, sorry I'm late." I sighed, dumping my bag underneath the counter.

"Camille?" She asked knowingly.

"You have _no _idea."

She nodded and headed back into the other rooms, the one where we usually kept the animal grooming equipment. I ran my fingers through my hair and quickly tossed it up into a messy ponytail, pinning the name-tag to my T-shirt afterwards.

Aunt Belle had been blanked by my parents, one of the main reasons being that she'd quit a well-paying job to run the store instead. But when I'd turned sixteen and my dad had requested that I find a job, she jumped straight in. Offered me a job at the store as soon as she found out, which she found out from my grandparents, with my parents having blanked her out and everything. And while my mom and dad had completely flipped out, I couldn't have been more relieved to find a job.

"So, how's school?" She asked, once again coming out from the back room. Except this time, she held a German-Shepard puppy in her arms.

"Stressful." I shrugged, hopping up onto the stool.

"It can't be that bad." She smiled, putting the puppy down in the pen with the others.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You don't even know the half of it. Anyway, do you need me to do anything?"

She shook her head and picked up one of the other puppy's. It wasn't hard to tell the puppy's apart, they all wore different colour collars to avoid confusion.

"Just what you usually do. Stand behind the counter and look pretty."

I smiled in amusement. "Thanks Belle, but that's Camille's job."

She rolled her eyes at me. "No, Camille's job is to serve drinks and look slutty. For sisters that spend as much time together as you do, you couldn't be more different."

"Yeah well, that's the case with most siblings." I shrugged, resting my arms on the glass counter.

"No, some siblings have things in common. Both you and Camille are _very_ different. Like me and your mother." She said, putting down the puppy and walking towards me.

"That's taking it a little _too _far, Belle's. You and mom fight like there's no tomorrow in the same room. But me and Camille get along really well."

"Is that why you had to take the bus today?" She smirked, earning a small glare from me.

"_No. _We just had a disagreement about something."

"A disagreement? About what?" The main thing about my Aunt was, she was _very _eager to know about people's lives. Probably because it was the most excitement and information she'd never get from her own life.

"_Nothing,_" I stressed, causing her to roll her eyes. "Just a little thing, but we'll probably be fine by tomorrow."

"Fine." She sighed, knowing she wouldn't get anything gossipy out of me. "At least check on the new kittens I got in."

I smiled. "New? God, these kittens go so quick."

"That's because they're so adorable, but with the crime rate in this city people seem to be buying the puppy's a lot more. Wanna train 'em up to be guard dogs." She said as we headed towards the kitten pen.

"Guard-Dogs? Jesus, what is this city coming to?" I sighed, crouching down to scan the new kittens.

"It's becoming dangerous more than anything, I can't walk home without worrying about getting raped or mugged."

I nodded in understanding, picking up the smallest kitten and holding it to my chest. It dug it's claws into my shirt, it's nails scraping against my chest.

"Well, bad side to living in Boston I guess." I shrugged, standing straight with the kitten still clinging to my shirt.

"No, it's the bad side of living in this part of Boston, you're safe." She said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, for now. What's gonna happen when the muggers decide to go higher in the world? The first place they're gonna go is the suburbs." I told her.

"Fair point." She muttered.

Despite being in a busy part of town, the store didn't get many customers. And if they did, it was usually someone looking to hit on the workers. If it wasn't me, it was Belle's other helper - my cousin Tamara. Belle was intent on keeping the store in the family apparently.

"Oh my god." She suddenly gasped.

"What?" I questioned, continuing to stare down at the beautiful white kitten in my arms.

The bell above the door rang, alerting us that someone had entered. And once I looked, my eyes widened.

"Oh god," I silently whined.

"I'm being nice here, very nice. Do you wanna take this guy or can I?" Belle asked, turning to face me.

"You take him." I rushed out, shaking my head frantically.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Are you serious? Wait, do you know that guy?"

I shrugged slightly. "You could say that."

"Ex?"

"Just go for it."

She smiled gratefully and fluffed up her hair before heading towards him.

I turned away from the two, instead choosing to pay attention to the small animal attached to my shirt. I quickly glanced to check the gender, finding out that it was a girl. The urge to look and see what was going on with Belle was driving me crazy, but I knew I couldn't draw any attention to myself. It was going against everything I'd said to Camille earlier on. But as I prayed he didn't see me, I knew the universe just wasn't that kind to me.

"Well, hello there stranger."

I sighed to myself, but smiled as I turned around. "Hi Connor."

"So, dis is yer work place?" He asked, glancing around the store.

"Yup. Not the best job in the world but it's money right?" I shrugged.

He nodded. "Guess so."

"So, what exactly are you doing in here?" I asked, stroking the kittens small head.

"Well see, I was on me way 'ome when I saw this beautiful little thing through the window. I jus' had to get a closer look." He replied, lightly scratching the kittens head.

"Really?"

"Aye, cat's not too bad either." He smirked, looking quite proud of himself.

"Good line, just about beats 'did it hurt when you fell from heaven'." I said, smiling in amusement.

"Well, I do put a lot o' thought into me lines."

"I'll bet. But seriously, what are you doing in here?" I asked, turning to full face him.

"Same reason I gave ye las' night lass. Jus' wanted ta see ye again." He admitted.

I nodded and turned, bending down to place the kitten back into the pen before facing him again. "Why?"

His eyebrows raised. "What d'ya mean?"

"Why do you want to see me again? It's a simple question Connor." I shrugged, crossing my arms.

"Maybe 'cause I like ye. Yer gorgeous, good ta talk ta, an' ye don' punch me brother when he talks about shaggin' ye." He replied, earning a small laugh from me.

"I don't know." I sighed.

On the inside I was beating the shit out of myself. The guy was hot, funny, sweet, and I'd never talked to anyone as easy to talk to as him and his brother. And here he was, practically asking me out, and I was hesitating. But I knew it was only because of the circumstances. If Camille hadn't slept with his brother, and we had met under normal terms, I'd be saying yes in a heartbeat. But if Camille hadn't banged his brother, I'd have probably never met him.

"C'mon Gracie, what's the worst dat could 'appen?" He said, shrugging slightly.

"Gee I don't know, lots of things. You could half a split-personality that would beat me to death, resulting in me winding up in a ditch somewhere. _Or, _you could be a pimp trying to get some new girls in," I smiled, counting the reasons off on my fingers.

"See, that quick-wit. That's why I like ye!" He exclaimed.

I tilted my head at him. "I barely know you."

He rolled his eyes but nodded, pausing for a moment in thought before replying. "Fine den. Here we go; Me name's Connor McManus, I'm twenty-five years ol', I got a twin brother, me favourite colours green - not because I'm Irish, I love action movies, an' I came to America four years ago."

"You know, you just told me fifth-date information." I told him.

"C'mon lass, work wit me here!"

I rolled my eyes, but replied anyway. "Okay; My full name's Grace Marie Carter, I live with my older sister and both parents, I've lived in Boston my whole life, and my favourite colours blue."

"See, was dat so hard?" He asked, moving forward to rest his hands on my waist.

I sighed. "I guess not."

"Good girl. Now et's not like I'm askin' ye ta marry me. Jus' give me about...a week."

"A week?" I asked. He nodded. "Fine, guess it couldn't hurt."

"Dat's the spirit lass!" He exclaimed.

"But that doesn't mean we're dating." I rushed out, resting my hands on his shoulders.

"Okay, we're not datin'. So, when should I take ye out?" He smirked.

I narrowed my eyes and lightly shoved him. "Ass. Besides, I'm pretty occupied this week."

He shrugged. "I'll figure somethin' out. What time's are ye occupied?"

"On Monday's to Fridays I'm busy until three in the afternoon. Except on Mondays and Thursdays I'm pretty much occupied until seven." I told him.

He nodded, looking quite surprised at the busy schedule I had going. "Still wanna see me?" I asked, smiling slightly.

"O' course I do. Tell ye what, tomorrow I wan' ye to meet me at the diner. Ye know which one I'm talkin' about." He replied.

"You mean the one I got assaulted in?" I asked, an amused smirk on my face.

"I prefer to tink of et as the place ye met the mos' amazin' man in the worl'. But yeah." He shrugged.

I sighed to myself. "If I say yes, will you leave the store and let me work without any distractions?"

A smug smile appeared and I wished I'd worded it differently. "So, I'm distractin'?"

"Don't look so happy Connor."

"Okay, okay. But yes, I'll leave if ye say yes." He agreed.

I nodded. "Okay, then yes I'll meet you tomorrow at the diner. What time?"

"How's five?"

"Five's good."

"So, I'll see ye tomorrow?"

"Yep. But just so you know, you're not paying for me."

He raised his eyebrows. "Is dat right?"

I nodded. "Mhmm."

"See lass the ting about dat is," He leaned forward till his mouth was right next to my ear. "I do what I want. An' if I wanna pay for ye, I will."

Ignoring the tingles in my stomach, I managed to choke up a reply. "Okay."

He leaned back, looking way too smug as he did. "Good girl."

"Okay jackass, get out of here so I can work." I playfully snapped, gently pushing him towards the door.

"Ye jus' gonna send me on me way without anythin' to occupy me thoughts?!" He exclaimed in disbelief, holding his arms out.

I shook my head. "Nope, you want something then you'll figure out a way to get it. Girls don't make the first move, guys do."

"Little sexist there don' ye think?"

"Nope. Bye Connor." I smiled, heading back towards the front-desk.

As I slid behind the counter to sit back on the stool, I rested my arms on the counter. I'd expected him to just take my small remark and leave. But that just proved how much we still had to learn about each other. And one of things I'd gotten from him, was that he had to have the last word - or kiss.

"No goin' anywhere yet lass." He reached across the counter and lightly gripped the front of my T-shirt, pulling me towards him.

A small squeak managed to leave my mouth, but only a small one since he managed to smash his lips against mine.

Now, I'd only kissed about a handful of guys in my seventeen years of existence. And in that moment, I knew the exact reason why most girls dated older guys. They were a _lot _better than boys our own age. Well, Connor was better at kissing than guys my own age were anyway.

He pulled back, giving me a small closed-mouth kiss before speaking. "So, how was dat for makin' the first move?"

It took a few seconds for the words to get to me, but they finally did. "That was good."

He smirked and nodded, leaning back slightly while releasing my shirt. "Good ta hear. I'll see ye tomorrow lass."

"Yeah." I sighed, still pretty tingled up and dazed from the kiss.

"See ye soon."

I nodded and waved slightly as he exited the store. But the clearing of someone's throat got my attention.

"Sorry Belle's."

"Don't apologise to me. Man what I wouldn't give to be seventeen again." She muttered, turning and heading into the back room again.

I smiled to myself and sighed, feeling slightly giddy as I let my head rest on the counter.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note:

Hi Readers! Thank you all for reviewing, it means a lot to me.

Also, I don't know it's against fanfiction rules to 'advertise' other stories, but I will anyway. I've recently posted a 'Blade' fic, and it's a Scud/OC obviously. So if you're fans of Blade or Norman Reedus then check it out, if you want to anyway. It would mean a lot.

Anyway that's about it but I hope you enjoy the chapter, and keep the reviews coming if you can. :)

* * *

"So, he asked you out?!"

"Yes." I sighed.

After getting home from work, I'd immediately dialled Jade's number. She'd want to know what happened, and I kind of wanted to tell someone about it. Obviously Camille couldn't find out, otherwise the plan would be thrown back into action.

"Tell me you said yes," She begged. "If you said no I will come over there and kill you with the kitchen knife."

I smiled in amusement. "Yes, I said yes."

She squealed loudly, causing me to hold the phone away from my ear until it ended.

"OMG! Do you have any idea what this means?"

"No, not really." I replied, leaning back against the headboard.

"I can _finally _come over and help you get ready for the date! I've never helped you get ready for one, well except the date's with Dylan but let's not get into that. Anyway, how did Camille take you dropping out of the plan?" She asked.

I sighed. "Not good. She made me take the bus and I was late for work. Hell she didn't even talk to me when I got home. Just slammed her bedroom door like a little kid."

Jade scoffed. "Let her slam doors, hell let her smash the whole house, just don't give in to her again. I know how bad your guilt-trip tolerance levels are."

"I know, I'm actually feeling pretty guilty about it now to be honest. I mean, without her I wouldn't have met the guys, the least I can do is..."

"No, no, no!" She exclaimed, cutting me off.

"What?"

"You _know _what. Don't think about it, because the more you think about it the guiltier you'll feel, and before you know it you'll be running errands for your slutty sister like you usually do."

"Jade!"

"You know I'm right, about it all. Just _please _don't let her get to you again Grace."

"Okay, I won't." I promised.

"Grace," She said warningly.

"I won't!"

She sighed. "Good. Now, where did he ask you to go?"

I sighed in relief, inwardly thanking her for changing the subject.

"This diner, where I first met them both. Told me to be there tomorrow at five, he knows I'm pretty busy for the week."

"You told him you're still a minor?" She asked, surprise clear in her tone.

"What? Heck no! I just told him the times I was busy and he didn't push, it actually surprised me a little. _But _he said he doesn't care how busy I am, he still wants to see me." I shrugged.

"Aw, that is adorable. Maybe I should've helped with your plan, I could've taken the other one."

I laughed. "Murphy? He's the one Camille slept with."

"Who cares!? He's hot and experienced." She exclaimed.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. "How do you know he's experienced?"

"Because all older guys are." She replied in a 'duh' tone.

"You have _no _idea. Anyway, I gotta go make dinner."

"Okay, but you _have _to let me know how tomorrow night goes. If you don't then I'll never let it go, _and _I'll let our whole class know that you're dating an older guy."

"You'd never do that to me Jade." I smiled, knowing her threats were empty.

"I could! Anyway, guess I'll see you at school tomorrow. Later bitch."

"Bye Slut."

~...~...~...~...~...~

I headed towards the front door, attempting to be silent so that Camille didn't hear me.

She hadn't spoken to me since our argument, and while it was good, it was also bad. Camille was sneaky, and she had a strange liking for revenge. So for all I knew she could've been planning something against me. But I didn't have the energy to think about it, whatever Camille decided to throw at me, I could probably handle it. She was my older-sister after all, and we knew each other better than we knew ourselves.

I gently took hold of the doorknob and turned, slowly pulling the front door open.

"Where you going?"

I jumped and slammed the door shut, spinning around to see Camille. She leaned against the wall next to the living room doorway, arms crossed with her eyes narrowed.

"Just out with Jade." I shrugged, trying to sound casual.

"Really?" She asked sceptically.

I nodded. "Yeah, she wants me to go on a date with her boyfriends friend. We're going out together, she wants to keep him happy and I'm a sucker for guilt-trips. _But _I made you some food and left in the microwave, I probably won't be home until later on."

Camille nodded slowly, seeming to buy it, but I couldn't be completely sure.

"Okay, have a good night." She said before entering the kitchen.

I sighed in relief once she disappeared from view and opened the door again, rushing out of the house.

~...~...~...~...~...~

I waited outside the diner for Connor, sitting at one of the outside tables.

Saying I was nervous would be an understatement. I hadn't gone out with anyone since Dylan, and that had ended badly. But I just had to keep reminding myself that it was one week, one week for Connor to do whatever it was he wanted to do. He could do every romantic thing in the book - if there was one - but it wouldn't change my views on guys. Sure he was nice, but he could change his mind at any moment. Decide he wanted a pretty blonde instead. So I wasn't getting my hopes up about it.

"Hi there stranger."

I smiled at the familiar voice and looked up. "Hi Connor."

He nodded in greeting and sat at the opposite seat, leaning back while resting his arms on the table. "You look good."

"Really? That's strange because I just threw this on." I shrugged.

"You're not gonna make this easy are ye?"

"Nope." I smirked, crossing my arms on the table.

"Good, I do like me a challenge." He winked, leaning forward slightly.

I tilted my head at him. "Confident are we?"

"Jus' a bit."

"So, where's your brother tonight?" I asked.

"Out wit Roc'. Would ye be mad if I said that I didn' wan' him knowin' I was on a date with ye?"

"Nope. I don't want my sister knowing I'm on a date with you either." I replied, shaking my head.

"So, ye finally admit dat dis is a date?" He smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "No, it just slipped out that's all. I mean, what else do we call this? A one week trial?"

"One week trial? Kind o' the perfect term for dis I s'pose."

"Definitely. So that's what this is, a one-week trial. Think you can do it?"

"O' course I can! I'm Irish, we're an enthusiastic bunch."

I laughed. "Yeah, I'll bet."

"Tell me somethin' lass. Why don' ye want yer sister knowin' about dis?" He asked, eyes narrowed with curiosity.

I shrugged slightly. "Because, she doesn't need to know. Her relationships have been based strictly around sex. I mean, I don't think she's ever been on an actual date since she was a teenager. So her views on guys are a little different from mine. I mean, if I had told her she'd probably tell me to wear a push-up bra or something and a really short skirt. There's probably a lot more I could tell you about her advice, but you don't wanna know."

"Christ lass." He chuckled.

"I know right? Anyway, why don't you want your brother knowing about this?" I asked.

"Well because the ass would probably try an' interrupt. An' I don' wanna 'ave ta listen ta his remarks when I get back 'ome." He explained.

"That's a good enough reason as any."

He nodded and we fell into a small awkward silence, neither of us knowing what to say.

"So, I have a confession for you." I sighed.

He immediately looked up, an intrigued expression on his face. "Really?"

"Mhmm. I've never done this before." I admitted.

"What? A boyfrien' or a date?"

"Date."

His eyes widened slightly. "I thought ye were wit dat one guy?"

"Yeah, we were together. But we never went on a date, he asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes. That's all there was to it." I shrugged.

He shook his head. "Fuckin' 'ell lass. Where's the lad now den?"

I sighed in thought, tapping my fingernails against the table. "I don't know. He uh, he left me a note one day saying that he didn't want to see me again. It tore me apart and I haven't gone out with another guy since."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have told you that actually, makes me sound kind of sad." I said, feeling a little embarrassed by my revelation.

"Don' worry 'bout it, I've had girls say a lot worse." He reassured.

"Really, like what?" I asked, resting my chin on my hand.

"Well, this one lass actually started cryin' over 'er ex."

I smiled. "Let me guess, you acted like a supportive date, telling her it would all be okay. You wrapped your arm around her and let cry on your shoulder. Then she probably said that you were a great guy and she wished her ex had been more like you. Then you guys get closer and closer until you finally find yourselves making out. Next thing you know she's asleep and you're sneaking out of her apartment hoping that you'll make it back home before your brother wakes up."

By the expression on his face, I could tell I'd gotten it spot on.

"Ye wanna tell me 'ow the fuck ye know dat?"

"My sister and her friends like to talk." I shrugged.

He shook his head. "Nah lass, that's a pretty guy ting ta know. So how _do _ye know 'bout it?"

"One night I stayed over at a friends house. She has this older-brother and he had some guys over to discuss football or whatever. Anyway, there was this little vent that travelled from his room to hers, her dad filled it up so it's not there anymore but still. Those boys talked about some of their secrets, ways to get girls into bed, and I listened as carefully as I could. So, me and my friend know just about every trick there is to get a girl into bed." I admitted.

"Fuck." He muttered, staring at the table in thought.

"Still wanna trial me?" I asked, smirking slightly.

"Aye, I do." He confirmed.

"Why?" I asked, feeling slightly frustrated with him. "Everything I've said so far should have had you freaked out and hauling ass in the other direction. Why are you still trying Connor?"

"Well, firs' of all I like ye. Secon', yer a bit o' a challenge fer me an' I kind'a like et. An' las', I reckon I can change yer min'." He replied.

"Change my mind about what?" I asked, my eyes narrowed in confusion.

"'Bout men. It ain't hard ta tell yer used ta bein' aroun' jerks an' what-not. Now I'm makin' it me main priority ta change yer min'."

I smiled slightly. "You really do like a challenge don't you?"

He grinned. "Ye got no idea lass."


	13. Chapter 13

As the time flew by, I found myself finding it easier and easier to talk to Connor about things. Of course I did leave out the part about why I'd met him in the first place, and when I did refer to Camille I called her CC - her high-school nickname. At first I was hesitant to talk about my family, but when I remembered that I'd called off the plan, I found it easier to relax. He told me about Ireland, about his Ma, but I noticed that he seemed to leave out everything about his dad. But if he didn't want to bring it up, then I wasn't going to push.

"So tell me somethin' lass," He started as we both strolled down the busy street.

"Hmm?"

"What are ye doin' livin' wit yer parents an' sister if ye don' like it der?"

I paused and crossed my arms, looking up at him in curiosity and confusion.

"How do you know I don't like it there?"

He shrugged. "Jus' got the feelin' ye don' like et much. I mean, ye talk abou' always helpin' yer sister when she's drunk. An' ye talk abou' how yer parents are never aroun'. Kin' o' get the feelin' ye don' like et much."

I nodded and sighed to myself. He didn't know I was still seventeen, that I was still in High-School, and that I couldn't go anywhere until I graduated.

"I'm actually saving up. The money I get from working at Belle's store, I don't plan on spending any of it. Living with my parents is kind of an easier way to keep money. Everything I deal with in that house will be worth it in the end." I replied, shrugging my shoulders as we carried on down the street.

"What are ye savin' for lass?" He asked curiously.

"Well, I want to get out of Boston. I mean, I've lived here all my life, never been anywhere else. So I figure the more money I keep, the closer I get to getting out of here. I still have money from birthdays, my parents pay for the food in the house and stuff that CC and I need. So I don't have to spend much." I explained.

He nodded in understanding. "Sound's like a good plan lass. Where would ye go though?"

I narrowed my eyes in thought. There were so many places I wanted to go, so many Cities I wanted to see and visit. But out of them all, I could pick out the one I'd wanted to visit since I was little.

"New York."

"Why dere?"

I shrugged. "Mainly because the city's so big my family won't be able to track me down."

He chuckled. "Well that's a good a reason as any I s'pose."

"Yeah. Okay, now I have a question for _you_." I said, sitting on a nearby bench.

He followed, taking up the spot next to me. "Ask away Gracie."

"I will. Why did you come here? Why Boston out of all the places in the world?"

He dragged out a long sigh and glanced around, turning to face me a few seconds later. "Ye really wanna know?"

I nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah."

"A'right, but ye can' laugh at et." He pointed a finger warningly and I nodded.

"I won't. Now tell me."

"Okay, okay. Well, ye see our Ma wan'ed me an' Murphy to get ou' o' Ireland, try an' make et on our own I suppose. But we 'ad no idea where ta go, so many places an' we 'ad no fuckin' clue." He paused for a moment, a small smirk threatening to appear. "Ye know the spinnin' globe tings?"

I nodded, my eyes narrowed slightly. "Uh-huh."

"Well, the idea was ta spin the globe, den close our eyes an' put our finger down on the globe. Den when we did open our eyes the place our finger landed on woul' be the place we visited." He finished.

By the end of the explanation, I was struggling to hold my giggles back.

"So, what you're telling me is that you and Murphy only came to Boston because your finger landed on it on a spinning globe?" I asked, chewing on my bottom lip to stifle the giggles.

"Well when ye put it like dat it sounds a bit ridiculous." He muttered.

"No matter how you put it it'll sound ridiculous. I can't believe you guys are twenty-five." I giggled, shaking my head slightly.

He rolled his eyes at me. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up lass."

"Hey I'm not judging," I reassured. "It's just a different answer than I thought I'd get."

"A'right lass, enough a me an' me brother's embarassin' tale's. Dere's actually somethin' I'm curious about though."

"What's that?" I asked, finally done with my giggle-fit.

"Yer sister. Why d'ye help her so much? No offence ta ye but she soun's like a righ' bitch."

I sighed. "You're actually not the first person to ask me that, my friend Jade does all the time. All people know about CC is the bad things about her; Her drinking, where she works, how many guys she's fucked. No one knows her as well as I do, she's not always like that. When I hit rock-bottom once she was there for me, cheered me up and told me it would all be okay. I've been helping her out since. I mean, our parents are never home so it's pretty much just me and her. She always tells me it's us against everyone else."

"Lass," He fidgeted slightly, staring at the floor in thought. "Does yer sister know about ye wantin' to travel?"

"No." I sighed, shaking my head. "She would flip out probably. She's pretty protective of me."

"Ye sure about dat?"

I looked up at him, my eyes narrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Is she protective of ye? Or does she jus' not wan' ye leavin' because den she'd be alone?"

"No, I mean..." I paused, shaking my head. Camille had always been there for me, she didn't have to be but she was.

"I'm not tryin' ta bring ye down lass. It jus' sounds like ye sister only wants ye aroun' for her, not for ye." He shrugged.

I sighed. "Connor, believe me I know my sister, she'd never keep me from doing something I really enjoy. And she'd never force me to do something that I wasn't happy with." Even as I said it, I knew it was a lie.

"Ye sure about dat lass? Tell me somethin', have ye ever stopped helpin' her out when she's drunk? Or when she asks ye a favour?" He asked, his eyebrows raised.

"No. Well, not until recently." I replied, leaving out the part about it being a revenge plan against his brother.

"Aye? 'Ow did she take et?"

"She didn't speak to me for two days. But she did talk to me before I came to meet you."

"What did she say ta ye?"

"She asked me where I was going. I lied obviously but she told me to have a good night. CC throws tantrums sometimes but she's a good sister Connor, she's done a lot for me." I sighed, my tone slightly pleading. I just wanted him to let it go, to stop making me thing about Camille. Because on some level, what he said made sense, and I didn't like it.

"A'right lass, sorry I pushed."

"Don't worry about it. Look can we not talk about my sister? All people ever do is ask me about her so we'd be more likely to survive the week if we didn't mention it."

He nodded in understanding. "No worries lass, no more talkin' 'bout yer sister. So, what do ye wanna talk 'bout?"

"What time is it?" I randomly asked, earning an amused look from him.

"Ye wanna talk 'bout time?"

I rolled my eyes. "I have an early start tomorrow. So do you know the time?"

He nodded, lifting the sleeve of his coat to glance at his watch. "10:00."

My eyes widened. "I've been out with you for five hours?"

"Aye, seems ye do like me af'er all lass." He smirked, looking quite proud of himself.

"Try not to look so happy Connor." I smiled, rising to my feet.

"Can' 'elp it lass." Was his defence as he followed me towards the bus stop.

I rolled my eyes, turning to face him as I leant against the wall.

"Yes you can, you just don't want to."

"Well d'ye blame me?!" He held out his arms and shrugged.

"I guess not. Any guys ego would hit the roof if he'd spent five hours with a girl without chasing her off." I sighed, chewing my bottom lip as I smirked at him.

He rolled his eyes. "Me ego is at a normal level lass. But ta be fair it does go up a notch when I got a pretty girl under me."

"Every guys does." I told him, not the least bothered by his revelation. "It's pretty much the same for girls."

"Ye speakin' for yerself lass?" He asked, resting his hands on my waist.

"Nope. I'm speaking for my sister, my best friend, my aunt Belle, and nearly every girl I've talked to. According to them, there's no better feeling for them than when they ride a guy so hard his neighbours hear _her _name." I replied, feeling quite proud of myself as his eyebrows raised.

"Is dat right?"

I nodded. "Mhmm."

"So, ye ever had the privilege of gettin' dat feelin'?" He asked, attempting to seem casual.

"You know I haven't. There's only been one guy for me, and I was strictly on the bottom." I replied, shrugging slightly.

His eyes suddenly narrowed. "Aye?"

"Mhmm. One guy, one time, the first time. Haven't done it since, never wanted to."

He removed his hands from my waist and instead rested them on my shoulders, pushing me completely against the wall while he pressed against me. It was like a sandwich, but Connor and the wall behind me acted as the bread slices.

"Ye mean, ye still don' want ta?" He asked, his voice dropping an octave.

I smiled as he lightly nudged my nose with his own, tracing my fingertips along his jaw-line.

"Never had anyone change my mind about it before." I admitted, trying as hard as I could to remain calm. His restraint seemed to be wavering, and to be honest I was enjoying it.

"Ye tink I could be the one ta change yer mind lass?"

He turned his head so that his left cheek was against my right, his mouth right next to my ear. His hands wandered down my arms until they reached my hands, where he laced our fingers together and pressed my hands against the wall, next to my head.

"Maybe." I breathed, closing my eyes as he traced open-mouthed kisses down my neck.

"Jus' maybe?" He asked, nipping lightly.

I bit down on my bottom lip, opening my eyes in time to see the bus approaching. On some level I was grateful, but on another level I badly wanted to stay with him.

"Connor, bus is here." I told him, smiling to myself as he groaned loudly.

"Ye got ta be fuckin' kiddin' me!" He silently exclaimed, pulling back to look down at me.

"Nope. I have to go." I sang, releasing his hands to pull the ticket out of my bra.

As I looked up at him I noticed him fidget slightly, chewing the inside of his cheek in frustration. But all it did was amuse the hell out of me - and make me quite proud of myself.

"You okay?" I asked, crossing my arms.

He shrugged. "I'll be a'right lass, nothin' me right-han' can't fix."

I giggled. "Sounds good. I guess I'll see you around then."

"Come ta the bar tomorrow. I know it's a Tuesday an' all but it'll be fun. I swear et." He said, resting one hand on my hip while the other took place on the side of my neck.

"I could make an appearance." I mock sighed, earning a small smirk from him.

"Maybe this'll make sure ye come."

Before I could even attempt to asked him 'what', he smashed his mouth against mine.

My hands automatically gripped his forearms, though I made sure to keep tight hold of the bus ticket. His right hand took a light grip of my hair and tugged my head back, giving him easier access to my mouth. With him being a few inches taller than me, it was understandable.

"Hey!"

We both pulled back and turned, only to find the bus-driver watching us both and looking a little annoyed.

"You gettin' on?"

I smiled to myself and nodded, releasing Connor. "Yeah."

"So, I'll see ye tomorrow den?" Connor asked, smirking proudly.

"Maybe. Can't guarantee it." I teased, making my way towards the door.

His eyes narrowed in disbelief. "Are ye tellin' me dat did not'in for ye?" He gestured to the wall that I was recently up against, to which I shrugged in response.

"Not telling yah, your ego seems big enough." He rolled his eyes and I smiled in amusement. "Goodnight Connor."

"Night Gracie." He waved before heading down the street.

I giggled and shook my head before heading onto the bus.

~...~...~...~...~...~

I crept through the door, attempting to be silent as I walked in.

The night had been perfect, not that I'd ever tell Connor that. And the kiss against the wall certainly had done something to me, and I knew I'd be back at the bar tomorrow night. But unlike my big sister, I wasn't going to give in to him so easily. It never worked for her and her male friends, and it wouldn't work for me either. The simple solution was just to give him enough, but not too much, just enough to keep him interested. And I really did want to keep him around, despite his and his brothers attitudes of one-night-stands he seemed nice enough, and I was going to be careful this time. Unlike Camille.

"So, going out with Jade huh?"

I jumped and slammed the door shut, turning to face Camille.

"What?"

"Don't bullshit me Grace, I _know _where you were." She glared.

I shook my head. "I don't know what you mean."

"You were with Connor."

Shit.

* * *

Author's Note:

Okay, so I hope the little romance scene at the end was okay, I couldn't stop laughing as I wrote it so I hope it turned out good. Anway thanks to those who reviewed so far, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. :)


	14. Chapter 14

"Uh...what?"

She rolled her eyes again. "I know you were out with Connor."

I chuckled nervously. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

I ran a hand through my hair nervously as I headed into the living room. How on earth did she find out?. But I was pretty sure the more I denied it, the less likely she was to believe it. Well, that was the plan anyway.

"Don't bullshit me Grace. Did you really think I wouldn't find out?!" She exclaimed, following me into the room.

I turned to face her, crossing my arms as I did. "I seriously don't know what you're talking about Camille."

She laughed bitterly. "I can't believe you're still denying this. I had my friends cop follow you, Grace. He told her and she told me that you were out with some gorgeous guy, it wasn't hard to figure out who it was. Now that we've covered that subject, why did you lie to me in the first place?"

"What would you have done if I did tell you? Huh? We both know you would have flipped the fuck out." I sighed.

"I have a good reason to!" She yelled. "You're seeing my ex-boyfriends twin brother. This is a good a reason as any to flip-out!"

"He wasn't even your boyfriend Camille!" I shouted back.

She nodded and crossed her arms, pouting slightly. "You're right. He fucked me and then left me. Which makes this thing even more worse."

"You got yourself into that." I snapped, feeling a load of relief as I did. The first time she was the victim, but the times after that she brought it on herself.

"You know, I was actually going to let you out of our 'deal' tonight. I was gonna talk to you about it before you left, but now I think the plan is back on." She said, smirking slightly.

I narrowed my eyes in disbelief. "What? The 'plan' is off, Camille. I told you before and I'll tell you again...I'm done."

She smiled and tilted her head. "Really?"

"Yes, _really._"

"Well, how do you think your Irish boyfriend would feel if he found out his girlfriend was a minor?"

"You wouldn't." I pleaded.

She shrugged. "Why not? _I've _got nothing to lose. But you? You've got him to lose."

"Actually I don't. We're not even dating, this was like a trial. I don't care if you tell him, knock yourself out." I lied.

"Oh _please, _it's so obvious you like this guy. But do you really think he'll still like you when he finds out why you guys met?" She questioned.

I sighed. "Why are you doing this Camille?"

"Because we both started this plan so now we're both going to finish it. The 'plan' is back on, unless you want little Connor to find out that he was only being used all this time."

My eyes widened in disbelief. Of all the mean things Camille had done in her life, this had to be one of the worst. And suddenly what Connor had told me earlier started to make sense. She didn't care about me, she only cared about her. This was her revenge-plan, not mine. But despite what I was telling myself, I really did like Connor. So there was really only one option.

"Fine."

She smiled, sighing in relief. "Good girl. Now, how did your date go?"

"You know I'm pretty tired so I'm gonna head up." I told her, attempting to hold back the angry-tears. "I'll let you know tomorrow."

"Alright, night Gracie."

"Goodnight Camille." I sighed before heading up into my room.

~...~...~...~...~...~

"Please god let me deck your sister." Jade begged as we headed down the street.

She only lived a few houses down from me, so we were both able to walk home together. And I'd told her everything that had happened; The 'trial', the make-out - and what happened when I got home. Her response was nothing less than what I expected.

"I wish you would, but then she'd get our dad to sue you or something or get you done for assault and I love you too much to see you thrown into prison." I replied, shrugging slightly.

"I'm serious Gracie, it's not right for her to do this to you. You need to stand up for yourself."

I sighed. "I did Jade, and look where it got me. She has everything to screw me over, and to be fair to her we did start this thing together."

Jade suddenly stopped and gripped my forearms, turning me so that I was facing her.

"Don't you dare."

"Don't I dare what?" I questioned, my eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Don't do _that. _That thing where you think over something so much that you forget it's bad, you always seem to find some way to blame yourself, to make yourself feel guilty. None of this is your fault, okay? All of this is on Camille. And I swear that I'm gonna make it my main priority to figure out a way to get you out. A way that means you can keep the guy and get rid of the sister, while keeping yourself sane." She promised, resting her hands on my shoulders.

"Good luck with that." I muttered, smiling slightly.

She rolled her eyes. "Look Grace, you're always there for people, but no one's ever there for you - not even your _sister. _But I am, and I won't give up until I figure out a way to help you."

I smiled and nodded. "Thanks Jade, you're a good friend."

She shrugged. "I know. Hey, were soul-mates remember? We'd kill for each other."

In response, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a tight hug. She wrapped hers around my waist.

"Thank you."

~...~...~...~...~...~

I walked into McGinty's again, but this time feeling worse than the last few times.

Before coming out, I'd gotten a lovely little pep-talk from Camille. Her speech included multiple use of 'you better do it right' and 'if you don't he'll know all about it'. I'd never hated my sister more than I had in that moment. I didn't think she'd actually do it to me. But I should've seen it coming, she'd done it to nearly everyone she knew. Blackmailed them in some form or another. But we were _sisters. _And I was dumb enough to think it meant a lot more to her. But apparently I was wrong, and now I was in way too deep.

Sure Jade would do everything possible to help me, to try and get me out of it. But I knew she wouldn't be able to. Once Camille thought of something, she wouldn't let it go until it was done.

"Well, look who turned up!" A familiar voice exclaimed.

Despite my slightly downed feeling, I didn't have to fake a smile. Seeing the boys somehow made me feel better.

"Hi Rocco." I greeted, climbing up into the seat on his right.

"It's been a long time Gracie." He said, throwing an arm around my shoulders.

"It's been two days, and you're drunk." I told him, smiling in amusement.

"It's not 'is fault lass," Murphy threw in. "We bet 'im he couldn' down 10 shots in 30 secon's."

"I sure showed 'em Gracie." He slurred.

"I'll bet." I laughed, rolling my eyes slightly.

"So, somethin' tells me ye not jus' 'ere ta talk ta us." Murphy said knowingly.

I smiled sheepishly but nodded. "You're smarter than you look. So, where is this brother of yours?"

"Behin' ye lass." A familiar voice said.

I smiled again as two hands lightly gripped my waist, slowly spinning me around on the stool.

"Hi Connor."

He nodded in greeting and wrapped his arms around my waist. While I once again placed my hands on his shoulders.

"So ye did make an appearance."

"I did."

"Glad ye coul' make et."

"Me too."

"Ye two are fuckin' adorable." Murphy remarked from behind me.

Connor rolled his eyes. "Oh fuck ye! Ye jus' jealous I'm the one datin' 'er."

"Hey!" I exclaimed, lightly tapping his cheek. "We are not dating."

He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head as Rocco and Murphy's laughter reached my ears.

"She jus' told ye dear brother!"

"That was classic."

"Oh fuck ye both."

I smiled in amusement as their laughs grew louder, causing Connor to look even more pissed - and slightly embarrassed.

"What's wrong Connor? Ego a little bruised?" I teased, smirking slightly.

"Dat's jus' not fair lass. It's bad enough dey're teasin' me, I don' need it from ye too." He said, shaking his head.

Feeling a little sympathetic, I moved my arms behind his neck and laced my fingers together, tugging him even closer.

"Wanna give them something to talk about?" I smiled innocently, titling my head.

He smirked slightly and his eyes flickered behind me, probably to his brother or Rocco.

"Ye sure 'bout dat? Dey won' leave ye alone if ye do." He warned.

I shrugged. "I have a feeling they're going to tease me even if I don't. I mean c'mon, I'm 'trialling' you. The teasing jerk-offs behind me are kind of part of the package."

He chuckled. "Still refusin' ta believe we're datin'?"

"I'm getting there." I said. "So, you wanna do it or are you gonna be a chicken about it?"

"Eh lass," Murphy called. I turned my head to look back at him. "If me brother won' do what ye wan', I'd be happy ta do it for 'im."

"I second that!" Rocco exclaimed, downing yet another shot.

"Give him a countdown boys." I replied, turning back to face Connor.

"Five..."

"Yes sure ye wanna do this Gracie?" Connor asked.

"Four..."

"Wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't want to."

"Three..."

"I can' be responsible for me actions lass."

"Two..."

"Don't care."

"One..."

"Oh fuck et."

I smiled in triumph as he smashed his lips against mine, running a hand through my hair and getting a good grip. The cheers and laughs of most of the bars occupants were all I could hear. Well, I could also hear my heart pounding too if I concentrated hard enough.

My hands remained on the back of his neck, but his seemed to wander nearly everywhere. One second they were on my waist, the next on my thighs. He couldn't seem to stop moving them around - not that I was complaining of course. He soon finally let the stop on my knees, but only to lift and part my legs, allowing him room to move in between them. Instantly my legs locked around his waist, moving him so close there wasn't even an inch between us.

"Connor." I managed to get out.

He moved his actions down to my neck, choosing to torment me from that spot instead. "Hmm?"

"I think they have enough for one night." I sighed, running my right hand into his hair.

"Aye, but I don'." He muttered, nipping at my skin.

"Can't you just use your right hand again?"

He pulled back slightly, resting his forehead against mine.

"Now, 'ow can I let ye go when ye say stuff like dat?" He questioned before going back in.

I smiled slightly, biting down on my bottom lip. "C'mon Connor, why don't you just have a drink or something?"

Now don't get me wrong, I was more than enjoying the affection from him. But I knew the longer he went on, the more my self-control began to waver. And considering the circumstances with Camille's plan being back in action, I knew my guilt-ridden mind wouldn't be able to handle it.

"I 'ave lass, righ' before ye came in."

He pulled back again and looked down at me, and I knew exactly what he wanted.

"Come ta me place lass."

My eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. "You mean Rocco's?"

He shook his head. "Nope, yer not dat girl. If ye gonna go anywhere wit me, it's back to mine and Murphy's."

This was it. Camille's plan would go amazingly well if I knew exactly where they lived. She could trash their apartment or something, take her revenge out on their belongings. But the more I thought about it, the guiltier I became. All I wanted was for the plan to be over, but I knew it wouldn't happen.

"I don't know." I sighed, averting my eyes to the bar-top.

"C'mon Gracie," He groaned, pulling my gaze back to his. "I won' make ye do anythin' ye don' want ta."

"It's not that."

"Den what?"

"It's not you I don't trust, it's me." I admitted, shrugging.

His eyes narrowed slightly. "What d'ye mean lass?"

"I don't trust myself to not do something that I'll regret in the morning - not that I would regret doing that with you. But it's been a while, and I doubt my mind would be able to handle that."

It wasn't a complete lie to be fair, fucking him now could be a huge mistake, considering how many of my sisters mistakes started this way. If Connor wanted it that bad, then he'd wait for it.

"A'right." He sighed, moving back a bit further.

I inwardly screamed in disappointment. I'd almost seen it coming, I wouldn't have sex with him so he'd stop whatever was going on with us. It was plain fact; always had been, would be, and will be.

"Murphy!" He called.

I turned my head to face Murphy, curious as to what Connor wanted from him.

"Aye?"

"I'm headin' back."

A smirk instantly appeared on Murphy's face. "Really now?"

"Aye."

I turned back around to face Connor, still confused as hell. "What?"

He shrugged. "I'm takin' ye back wit me. An' I swear lass I won' let ye do somethin' ye don' wanna do."

I laughed in disbelief and shook my head to myself, earning a confused look from him.

"You a'right Gracie?"

I said nothing, instead gripping his shoulders and yanking him back to me. Sure it was leading him on, but his answer had both relieved and surprised me. Plus he didn't seem to mind the random act, if anything he got pretty into it - again.

"What was dat fer?" He asked as I pulled back.

"I don't know, just thought you deserved it is all." I shrugged, hopping down from the bar-stool.

He nodded - more to himself - and smirked slightly, throwing an arm around my shoulders. "Well den, let's get goin'."

I nodded and placed my own arm around his waist, feeling slightly giddy as we exited the bar.

* * *

Author's Note:

Hi readers! Thanks for the reviews, they mean a lot.

Also, I have to remind you readers that I am not good with writing romantic scenes, they make me laugh and cringe for some unknown reason. But I do feel like I should throw a lemon or something into this story. Only thing is, I have NO  idea how to write smut scenes. So if there is anyone reading this that can write these kind of things, please help me :(. You would get all the credit for that scene and it would mean a lot to me.

Anyway, thank you for reading my little pleading note, and I hope someone can get back to me.

That's about it but I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Review, Favourite, and Follow if you can. :)


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Note:

Hi readers! Again, thanks for all the reviews so far, they mean the world to me.

On another subject, I've changed my mind about the smut idea. Since I'm a very indecisive person (apparently) I am now choosing not to throw in a smut scene. Things will get pretty heated obviously, but I won't be writing a smutty scene. If they do have sex at some point during the story though, I will throw in an author's note or something to give you guys a heads up so that you're not all confused about what went down.

Also, the link to what Jade looks like wasn't on my profile before but it is now. Just letting you know as these kind of things help with the stories.

That's about it but I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Review, Favourite, Or Follow if you can. :)

* * *

I couldn't explain all the thoughts running through my head as I was led towards the McManus' apartment. So many different things were on loop in that moment; Camille's plan was one - a very big one. All I could think about was how much she was going to cherish this, how she would use it in some way to get back at Murphy. And there was no point in me hiding it from her. Her slutty best-friend screwing a married cop was my downfall. All I could do was work my way through it and hope for the best. I did of-course feel some peace that Jade was trying to help, I knew she'd do everything she could. But my big-sister knew how to knock people down, and when they thought they couldn't get any lower, she'd convince them otherwise. But her evil-ways hadn't really entered my mind until yesterday. Heck, I'd actually considered sibling murder. But I was too much of a chicken to be sent to prison - I wouldn't have lasted a day in there.

And if my thoughts weren't bad enough, my emotions were worse. Like extreme PMS. My stomach was in knots - good or bad I had no idea. My heart was racing, that much I was sure of. And I was a mix of practically everything; Excited, sad, angry, happy, nervous - it was quite the emotional rollercoaster. And Connor had absolutely no idea. Sure he knew I was nervous, anyone would've been able to tell. And the urge to tell him everything got stronger and stronger. I knew it'd break me eventually, and when it did I'd most likely have a heart attack or something. But until that moment came, I was going to keep it all under control to the best of my ability. At least until graduation.

"Right den lass, 'ere we are." Connor sighed, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I suddenly realised we'd exited the elevator and gotten to the bottom of the hallway without me realising it. But then again, my mind was all over the place in that moment. An hour could've passed and I probably wouldn't have noticed.

"Okay. You gonna open the door or what?" I asked, crossing my arms. Despite the air outside being quite warm, it seemed the building itself was a lot colder. And I wasn't exactly wearing a jacket.

He glanced between me and the door for a few seconds, sighing to himself as he finally stopped on me. "Ye need ta promise me somethin' Grace."

I rolled my eyes. "Connor, really?"

"Aye, really. Look, jus' do it for me an' ye won' 'ave ta do et again."

"Fine." I groaned, tilting my head slightly.

"Ye need ta promise me that ye won' bring anyone else up 'ere, not even yer best mate." He said.

"Promise." I sighed.

"I wasn' done lass."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry, continue."

He narrowed his eyes slightly at my annoyed tone, but didn't comment on it as he carried on.

"Ye can' tell anyone dat ye know where we live."

"Should I be worried right now?" I asked, both curious and nervous about the promises I was making.

"Not really, jus' keep yer promises an' ye'll be fine." He shrugged.

I nodded. "Okay, go on."

"An' if what we got goin' don' work den _please _don' try an set our apartment on fire. Or try ta kill me an' Murphy."

"I promise. But you need to raise your standards, stop going for the crazy chicks." I told him, smirking in amusement.

"Fine, laugh et up Gracie. Dis is for yer own protection, an' ours." He said, pulling out the key.

"What? I should worry for my life because you and Murphy happen to be man-whores?"

He finally unlocked the door and yanked it open, shooting me a quick glare as he did. "Man-whores? Really?"

I shrugged. "Best thing I could come up with. Sluts just didn't quite cut it."

Rolling his eyes he held the door open, gesturing for me to go first.

"Aw, and they say chivalry's dead." I teased, lightly tapping his cheek as I entered the apartment.

"Yer a real challenge lass." He muttered, coming in and closing the door behind him.

"That's what they tell me." I sang, squinting as he turned on the lights.

With it being quite dark outside, I wasn't able to see the apartment as good as I did now. And saying it was rough would be an understatement. It was all one large space, no walls apart from the usual four in a room, and two windows. The couch had a lot of holes, and a few beer cans were scattered across the floor. There was a small TV. A dining table littered with ashtrays, beer bottles, and fuck-knows what else. The boys' beds consisted of mattresses on the floor, and a small night-table separated the two. Meanwhile the shower was completely open, no curtain or anything. And a toilet had been placed in the corner. It wasn't the best apartment in the world, but I suppose it worked for them.

"It ain't much but it works I s'pose." He muttered, rubbing the back of his head as he glanced around.

I shrugged, lightly rubbing my arms for warmth. "It's not that bad. You got beds, a fridge, a shower, and a toilet. All you boys really need ain't it?"

"Aye, I s'pose. Anyway, ye wan' somethin' ta drink lass?" He asked, moving towards the fridge.

"What do you have?" I questioned, sitting on the beat-up couch.

He threw his coat down on one of the chairs and pulled open the fridge, chewing the inside of his cheek as he scanned the contents.

"Fuck, not much. Beer, whiskey. Ef we 'ad a tap I'd offer ye water."

"Well whiskey seems like too much for little me, so make it a beer."

He nodded and grabbed two beers from the fridge, kicking the door closed with his foot before turning to me.

"Here ye are."

"Thanks." I muttered, taking the offered beer from him.

He sat down on one of the chairs while I pulled my legs up onto the couch, rubbing them with my left hand as I held the beer in my right. It was once again silent, but not as awkward as last time.

"So ye got an early star' tomorrow?" He asked, leaning back against the wall.

"Depends on why you're asking." I shrugged.

He grinned. "Gettin' ta dat already? Thought ye weren' dat kind o' girl."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not, but I am curious as to why you're asking me if I have an early start tomorrow. And I'm not telling you until you tell me why you want to know."

"Well," He sighed, abandoning his beer on the table as he made his way towards me. "Maybe I wan' ye ta stay tonight." He finished, kneeling in front of me.

"I don't know." I hesitated, tilting my head again.

"I'm not askin' ye ta fuck me Gracie," He reassured. "Jus' stay."

I sighed in thought. Sure I had school tomorrow, it was a Tuesday after all. But maybe I could still get there on time, and if not I could ask Jade to cover me. Considering the circumstances though I was pretty sure she'd be more than happy to oblige. The only problem was Camille, she'd probably wait for me to get home tonight so she could give me the full interrogation. But if I didn't come home, she'd probably freak-out and repeatedly insist that I had slept with Connor. And then I'd probably say yes just to piss her off, in which case things would get a lot worse.

"I do have an early start tomorrow, but I guess I could tell them I'll be in late or something." I offered, shrugging slightly.

He nodded, looking rather pleased. "Sound's like a plan Gracie."

I smiled and rolled my eyes, putting my beer down on the floor before leaning forward. "One problem though."

"What's dat den lass?" He asked, shuffling around so that he was kneeling between my legs.

"What am I gonna wear to sleep?" He instantly opened his mouth but I cut him off. "And if you say nothing I swear to god I'll hit you, and not just because it's the most overused line in the history of Rom-Coms."

"Damn. Well dere is one other option, though I'm pretty sure it's worse than the 'nothin'' line."

I narrowed my eyes slightly. "What?"

He sighed over-dramatically and raised higher on his knees. My eyebrows raised as gripped the bottom of his brown sweater, lifting up and off before dropping it into my lap. He was right about one thing though, it was one of the cheesiest things I'd seen in movies.

"Would dat be better?" He asked, gesturing to the sweater in my hands.

I shrugged, attempting to keep my eyes on his face instead of where they really wanted to wander. "It'll do."

He nodded and grabbed my half-full beer from the floor, chugging it down before throwing it onto the dining table.

"Ye know Gracie, dere ain't anythin' for ye ta change behind." He told me, scanning the apartment as he did.

"Don't worry," I reassured. "I'll just get changed here."

His eyes widened slightly, probably in either disbelief or shock. "Ye serious?"

I nodded. "Sure, why not? I mean, I'm proud of my body, so I really don't care what you see."

He nodded again and I got to my feet, his sweater in my hands. Changing in front of people had never really been a problem for me, not in the school locker rooms and certainly not in front of guys. Besides, I had my underwear on, so it's not like he'd be seeing much. Just enough to possible drive him insane.

"You wanna turn around?" I asked amusedly.

He'd taken up my spot on the couch, slouching back with his arms outstretched against the back of the couch. The fact that he was only in jeans and his boots made him a lot hotter, and it wasn't very helpful for my self-control.

"Thought ye didn' care what I saw?" He grinned.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, but stay put okay? I don't completely trust you."

He tilted his head slightly, placing one hand over his heart. "Ye don' trust me lass? Dat hurts ye know."

"Oh please," I scoffed. "I'm sure another girl has hurt you a lot more than I did, and it wasn't with words."

"Dat ain't true Gracie. Although it was a good attempt on their part, o' course Murphy was always in the wron' place at the wron' time." He chuckled.

"Using Murphy as a shield? What a nice brother." I sarcastically remarked.

"Oi! I'll have ye know I'm a terrific brother! Now 'bout dis clothin' problem." He said, gesturing to the white dress I still wore.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Calm down horn-dog I'm getting there."

He merely shrugged innocently in response, earning another eye-roll from me. But I did tug off the dress, staring down at the floor as I switched it for the sweater. Seeing his reaction to my being half-naked wasn't something I needed right now, not with him looking like that anyway.

With him being a lot buffer and taller than me, the sweater was quite big. It reached mid-thigh and the sleeves ended at the tips of my fingers, so it was sort of like a night-gown. And with it being already warm from him, I was tempted to just hug myself to lock in the warmth, but I thought it would be pretty weird if I did that.

"So, 'ow does it feel?" He asked.

I looked up at him and shrugged, fiddling with the sleeves. "Warm, comfy. So it feels pretty good."

He nodded and stood from the couch, walking towards me. "Aye, looks good on ye too."

"Don't get any ideas." I playfully warned, allowing him to stand behind me and wrap his arms around my waist.

"Can' 'elp meself Gracie." He shrugged, resting his chin on my shoulder. "Ye jus' look too good in me shirt lass."

I smiled slightly and laced my fingers with the ones against my stomach. "According to my sister, the Carter girls can look good in anything. Even a potato sack."

"Aye, ye probably could." He muttered, nuzzling the right side of my neck with his head like an affectionate cat.

"That feels really good." I admitted, leaning back into him.

"Really now?" He asked, sounding too happy about it.

"Calm down Connor, it may feel good but it doesn't push a secret button that makes me wanna jump you."

"Damn, an' I was sure et would work."

I smiled in amusement. "Said it before and I'll say it again; Not like other girls Connor."

He squeezed my stomach a little tighter and I squeaked. "I know Gracie, still don' hurt ta try though does et?"

"I guess not." I sighed, letting my head fall back onto his shoulder. "So, what do you wanna do now?"

"Well, I got a few ideas..."

"Not that."

"Fine," He groaned. "What else is dere ta do?"

"Sleep maybe? I mean, I've been tired as hell for the passed few days, I could do with an early night." I shrugged.

"Can we et least snog a little before ye go ta sleep?" He practically begged, gently pushing me towards the mattresses.

I dragged out a loud sigh, but let him get us both to the mattress on the right.. "I guess."

My eyes widened slightly as his hands slid around to my ass, getting a good grip as he carried on moving us towards the bed-substitutes. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, if anything I loved it. And to be fair to him, I had been a bit of a tease that night. Changing in front of him, practically forcing him to make out with me in McGinty's. Even I had to admit there was only so much a grown man could take, and I had a small feeling I'd pushed it tonight. But the fact that he hadn't tried anything further yet caused my liking of him to grow - and that wasn't a good thing.

"Ye guess or ye know?" He asked, finally stopping us both.

"I know?" I offered, feeling the tingles again as he move around me to lie down on the mattress.

"Ye soun' a bit unsure lass." He chuckled.

His position was a little more than inviting to say the least. He was still shirtless, and still wearing only his boots and jeans. Legs spread and knees up as he laid on his back, his hands now folded underneath his head like a pillow. But I was most likely the same. Wearing only his sweater, my boots, and some jewellery, I probably looked just as tempting - not to pat myself on the back or anything. But a nun could walk in and immediately think we were up to something dirty, and I wouldn't blame her one bit.

"Nope." I muttered, shaking my head.

He nodded, chewing the inside of his cheek. "Well den ye won' min' gettin' yer arse down here now will ye?"

I smiled in amusement and held up my index finger, signalling for him to give me one minute. He nodded, closing his eyes as he relaxed into the mattress. And as soon as he did, I took off my boots and jewellery - except for my necklace. I hadn't ever taken it off before, and I didn't plan on starting now.

After taking off the unnecessary clothing, I looked down at him, my head tilted as I gnawed my bottom lip nervously. It had been a while since I'd done this and he was kicking my emotions into overdrive. One minute I was nervous, the next I was higher than the clouds. I hadn't felt like it in a while, and it did scare me a little. Topped off with the circumstances we met under, and I was close enough to being thrown into a mental institution from the pressure. But I couldn't think about that, all I could really concentrate on was him. And that was actually a good thing, it took my mind off all the other stressful bits of my life.

"Tic-toc, tic-toc." He sang, his eyes still firmly shut.

Rolling my eyes I silently walked towards the bed, moving around so that I was stood to his left, in between both mattresses. He seemed completely oblivious to it, but he could've been just waiting for me, letting me do it in my own time. And if he was, I couldn't have been more grateful.

Placing my hands down on either side of his head, I rested my left knee on his left side, swinging my right leg over so that I was straddling his stomach. My hands moved down to rest on his still-bare chest, while I slowly lowered myself to sit on his lower stomach. Not too high to possibly suffocate him, but not too low to have something stick up against my ass. It was like the perfect position - and he didn't seem to protest much.

His eyes snapped open and he smirked, moving his hands down to rest on my thighs.

"Hi there stranger." He greeted, his thumbs lightly rubbing my skin.

"Hey." I muttered, bringing one hand up to toss my long wavy hair over my right shoulder.

He moved his right hand up to the back of my neck, gently pushing until I lowered down, my face an inch away from his.

"You a'right?"

I smiled slightly and nodded, nuzzling his nose with mine. "I'm amazing."

He grinned and leaned up, keeping my head in place as he crushed his mouth against my own.

* * *

Author's Note:

Hi readers! So, hope that was a good chapter for you, it was longer than the other chapters I've done but I doubt anyone's complaining. ;)

I just felt the need to throw in a little chapter of Connor and Grace. Hopefully it wasn't too fluffy, but still cute.

Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Review, Follow, and Favourite if you can, :)


	16. Chapter 16

My eyes slowly blinked open and I squinted at the harsh light, almost immediately closing them again.

At first the unfamiliar feel of the sheets and the smell of the room caused me to freak out a little inside, but then I soon remembered what had happened the night before. Coming back to the boys' apartment, making out with Connor, and eventually falling asleep with him. But as I shuffled around on the medium-sized mattress, I realised I was alone in the bed. I wasn't worried though. It wasn't like we had sex, so even if he had disappeared it wasn't like I was about to commit the walk-of-shame. Besides, the guy had left me in his apartment. If he really wanted out of it, he'd have taken me to Rocco's instead.

I rubbed at my eyes and silently groaned, hoping the second time the room wouldn't be as bright. And thankfully, it wasn't. The boys were obviously lacking in the curtain department, not that it mattered much. They probably went to sleep when it was dark, and the sun in the morning was their natural alarm - it was pretty sensible.

"Wakey, wakey sleepin' beauty." A familiar voice sang.

Sitting up on the mattress I looked over at the dining table and found Murphy sat on one of the chairs. Leaning back with a cigarette in hand.

"Hi." I greeted, though my voice seemed quieter with me having just woken up.

"So, what 'appened las' night den?" He smirked, gesturing down at my clothes.

Looking down I suddenly remembered I'd gone to sleep in Connor's sweater, which was proving to be a very comfortable choice of PJ's.

"Get your mind out of the gutter Murph'." I said, rolling my eyes as I pulled back the blankets.

"Kinda hard lass."

"Why's that?" I questioned, getting to my feet and sitting down opposite him.

He shrugged. "Well the las' time I saw ye, ye 'ad me brother's tongue in yer mouth. Den I come 'ome to fin' ye both in his bed. Under the sheets, 'im wearin' is boxers an' ye wearin' 'is sweater. Kin' o' hard not ta see anythin' else."

"That's a fair point. But you can believe what you want, I didn't fuck him."

"I believe ye Grace. If ye had, ye woulda been wearin' a lot less."

I nodded and crossed my legs, resting my hands on the table. "So, where is your brother this morning?"

"Went to get somethin' ta eat, we don' 'ave much for lass's in the fridge." He said, blowing smoke through his mouth.

"I noticed."

"Hmm. So, how was sleepin' on a mattress? Not like yer used ta?"

I shrugged slightly, glancing back at the un-made beds. "Better than I thought. Hell, probably a little better than my actual bed."

He grinned. "That'd be the Irishman sleepin' behin' ye lass. Would make anyone's bed better."

"That's another fair point." I giggled, tilting my head slightly. "So, did you get any last night?"

"Aye, pretty good if I say so meself."

I smiled. "She was good or _you _were good?"

He shrugged again, looking quite proud of himself. "Well, she got dere before me so I'm gonna say me."

"Congrats."

"Thank ye Gracie."

We fell into a small silence and I thought over a few things. I was stuck with Murphy - alone. So while here I might as well have gotten some information on the guy, just a little to keep Camille happy. Because if I went home without anything, things would definitely get worse for me.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Ye jus' did lass." He smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "Smart-ass. Murphy, does it ever bother you? The whole one-night-stand things? You don't have to tell me if you don't wanna, I'm just curious."

He nodded and paused for a moment, putting his cigarette out in one of the ash-trays. "I don' think about et ta be hones' Grace. But no, I don' think so."

"Right." I sighed.

"No, not like dat lass." He rushed out, noticing my expression.

"So what is it like?"

He leaned forward and crossed his arms on the table, his expression completely serious. "B'fore I fuck a girl, I let 'er know it's gonna be a one-nighter. Jus' sex. An' dey always say it's fine, dat's why I don' care 'bout it."

I nodded in understanding but my eyes narrowed in confusion. If Murphy did let the girls know that it was only for one night, then why was Camille so upset about it? Wouldn't she have agreed to it if they did have sex? Maybe she was too drunk to remember. I'd have to ask her about it when I got home.

"Oh. Sorry about...you know." I sheepishly said, feeling a little guilty about my response before.

He waved a hand dismissively. "Don' worry 'bout et, I'd a thought the same tink. But I'm not me brother Gracie."

"What does that mean?" I immediately questioned. That last bit had sent my stomach into knots - and not the good kind.

"Well, if I tell ye, ye can' beat Connor up."

"Murphy I know you and your brother are horn-dogs, and have probably banged your way through most of the women in South Boston. But you have to remember that I have an older sister who's done more riding than a professional jockey. You can tell me _anything _and I won't judge. C'mon, just tell me." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

He nodded after a seconds hesitation, gulping down some left-over beer before answering. "Well, Connor don' like confrontation' much. Especially wit women. Maybe 'cause dey cry an' scream an' all dat shite. He prefers to do it, den get out. No warnin' or anythin' - jus' avoids 'em like da plague. An' me brother can be _very _indecisive."

I nodded in understanding, though I wasn't the least bit phased. I knew the gist of it when I got into this 'plan', so hearing all of that from Murphy wasn't that bad.

"Well I'm not gonna beat him up if that's what you're worried about."

"It ain't dat lass." He said, shaking his head. "I can' tell ye dat he won' do it to ye too. He migh' not stick aroun' after he fucks ye...if he fucks ye o' course. But he's runnin' a big risk bringin' ye back 'ere, so who knows."

"I don't care about that." I admitted, earning a slightly surprised look from him. "What we're doing _now _isn't dating. It's a one-week trial. This week is just to see if we can't stand each other, something I plan on doing without sex. Look he might not want me if I do decide to have sex with him, it could be his sex-drive getting him through this thing, and if it is then I'll just accept it and move on. I know what I'm getting into and I can deal with it, but for now I'm choosing to believe he won't do that. Can you let me thing good thoughts about your brother? At least just for this week?"

He smiled slightly and nodded. "Aye, I s'pose I can go a week widout gettin' Connor into some kin' o' trouble with ye."

"Good boy." I smirked, leaning back in the chair.

The front door opened and we both looked up, watching as Connor strolled in.

"Well, speak o' the devil." Murphy said loudly, earning his brothers attention.

Connor turned to face us both, kicking the door shut with his foot. It was then I noticed the brown paper bag in his right hand, most-likely filled with food.

"Oh fuck ye Murph." He snapped, walking towards us.

My eyes widened slightly as he dumped the bag in front of Murphy before standing in front of me, lightly fisting the front of the sweater I was wearing. In a short second I was gently pulled to my feet and against him, his arms instantly wrapping around my waist.

"Hi Grace." He greeted, nudging my forehead with his.

"Hi Connor." I giggled, rolling my eyes slightly.

He grinned and dipped down, pushing his lips against mine. My hands gripped the sleeves of his coat while his slid down to my bare-thighs, sliding up so that they were underneath the sweater. His right hand slid out from underneath the shirt and trailed up my back, soon taking a good grip of my hair and tilting my head back for easier access.

"Get a fuckin' room!"

I laughed and moved back from Connor, turning to face Murphy.

"We got one, ye jus' in it." Connor retorted, earning an eye-roll from his brother. "So, ye were talkin' 'bout me were ye?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

"When I came in, Murph' said talk o' the devil. So ye were both obviously talkin' 'bout me when I walked in."

"Ye right Connor, we spent every minute discussin' ye because our lives are dat pathetic." Murphy sarcastically replied.

"Fuck ye Murph'. But it'd better not be anythin' bad." He warned, heading towards the fridge.

Murphy and I nodded to each other, a small understanding passing between us.

"It was nothing."

~...~...~...~...~...~

I attempted to remain silent as I climbed through my bedroom window, wondering how the hell my big-sister managed it while intoxicated.

Instead of taking the bus home, Connor had drove me - using Rocco's car of course. The Italian had no objections, as long as Connor promised to return it unharmed and in one piece. And while he'd acted on the fence about it, telling Rocco that he couldn't guarantee it, I knew he'd get it back as good as it was when he took it. They teased Rocco a lot, but it wasn't hard to tell that they'd probably take a punch for him as well. Jade and I had the exact same relationship.

"You know, I thought you were at school."

I jumped as Camille appeared in the doorway, smirking as she leaned against the archway.

"How many times have I asked you not to do that?" I sighed in annoyance, taking off my boots.

"About as many times as I've done it."

I rolled my eyes. "Awesome."

"_Anyway, _is this finally your walk-of-shame?" She excitedly questioned, as though the fight and blackmail had never happened.

"No, I'm not you." I retorted, feeling slightly smug as her smirk faltered.

"I don't feel shame for what I've done. But either way, you didn't come home last night, so where were you?"

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "I was with the twins."

She nodded and decided to push on. "With the twins where?"

"At their friends apartment."

"And how did you get home?"

"Connor drove me." I shrugged, earning a look of disbelief from her. "What?"

Her eyebrows raised. "Are you seriously asking me that?"

"Yeah."

"He knows where you live now, yet you have no idea where he lives. This is, like, the worst thing ever!"

"Calm down, you sound like some bad actress."

"Did you at least find out anything good?" She impatiently asked.

Murphy's explanation immediately sprung to mind and I nodded, deciding to call her out on it.

"Yeah, I had a small talk with Murphy."

"Yeah?" She asked, sounding pissed at his name. "What did the jerk-off say?"

"He said that he always tells the girls he's going to sleep with that he lets them know before hand. So that means you agreed to the one-night-stand, in which case there is no reason for you to do this." I explained.

"He's lying!" She screeched, shaking her head frantically.

"Camille, I don't know."

"You're telling me that you believe _him _instead of _me_? Your sister."

I narrowed my eyes in irritation. "Are you really pulling that card right now? Don't you dare act like you've been a good sister to me!"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh my god, those jack-asses have you wrapped around their little Irish dicks."

"They don't..."

"Those boys think they're everything!" She carried on, completely blanking me during her rant. "Murphy, thinking he can go around fucking everything just because he has these gorgeous blue-eyes and amazing blonde hair..."

My eyes narrowed slightly as she reached the end. "Camille."

"...And all those tattoos. I mean, who the fuck has foreign words tattoo'd on their hands?! It could mean anything..."

"Camille!" I shouted, earning her attention.

"What?"

"Describe Murphy for me."

She chuckled humorously. "What does this have to do with anything?"

I sighed. "Just do it."

"_Fine. _Blue eyes, blonde-hair, tattoo on his left hand..."

It was as though everything slowed down like those cheesy High-School drama movies. If Camille was being serious, then I'd been going for the wrong brother. And to make matters worse, I was too far alone to turn back.

"Camille, you didn't fuck Murphy."

"C'mon Grace, I think I know who I fucked." She scoffed.

I shook my head. "No, you don't."

"Uh...yeah, I do."

As much as she protested I knew it was true. All the things that the boys had said, along with Camille's descriptions came to mind, and it all made perfect sense;

_'In his defence he didn't pour the drinks down my throat. It was my decision to carry on drinking, and he did call me a cab. Most guys would have taken me home as soon as I hit that floor.'_

_'I'll 'ave you know I'd rather not get girls drunk, make's 'em useless.'_

_'Aye, we switched name's once, jus' ta see what 'appened.'_

_'"B'fore I fuck a girl, I let 'er know it's gonna be a one-nighter. Jus' sex. An' dey always say it's fine, dat's why I don' care 'bout it.'_

_'Well, Connor don' like confrontation' much. Especially wit women. Maybe 'cause dey cry an' scream an' all dat shite. He prefers to do it, den get out. No warnin' or anythin' - jus' avoids 'em like da plague. An' me brother can be __very _indecisive.'

"Grace!"

I was pulled out my thoughts by Camille, who stared down at me with her arms crossed.

"Hmm?"

"I know who I fucked, it was Murphy."

"Okay." I sighed disbelievingly, resting my head on the pillow.

* * *

Author's Note:

Hi guys! Hope you liked the twist, although I'm sure many of you saw this coming. However it will be another few chapters before the boys find out what's going on, so I hope you keep reading.

Thanks for the reviews so far and please keep them coming, they mean a lot to me. :)


	17. Chapter 17

"So, all this time it was Connor I fucked?" Camille asked, lying on her back next to me.

"Uh-huh." I replied, my voice just as blank as hers as we both stared up at the ceiling.

After a lot, lot, _lot _of explaining and shouting, I'd finally got through to my sister. Although it did take quite a bit to convince her she hadn't fucked Murphy, as she could be quite stubborn when she wanted. And to get her to believe me I'd had to go through everything they'd told me so far. But after it all we'd both fallen onto my bed, exhausted from the screaming, shouting, arguing - everything really. We'd never done it before, and I was actually grateful for that.

"Well, this is intense."

I moved up onto my forearms, narrowing my eye at her. "Intense?"

She nodded. "Yeah. What other words are there?"

"Uh, I don't know. Unlucky, fucked up, insane, a completely disaster..."

"Okay, okay I get it Grace!"

I sighed and fell onto my back again. "That's it then."

"What do you mean?" She asked, turning her head to face me.

"Well, I cant keep seeing Connor now, that wasn't the plan. And it's not like I can magically turn onto Murphy." I shrugged, also turning to face her.

A look of thought suddenly crossed her face. "Well,"

"Uh-uh, no way!" I objected, shaking my head.

"No, think about it," She shot up into a sitting position, looking down at me. "You don't have to switch onto Murphy."

I narrowed my eyes in curiosity, moving up onto my forearms again. "What do you mean?"

"Well, things seem to be going good with Connor. Just do to him what he did to me." She shrugged.

"What?!" I grimaced. "I'm not fucking Connor!"

"Why not?! There's nothing wrong with him!"

"Are you hearing yourself right now?!" I asked, rushing to my feet and turning to face her.

"Just hear me out Grace," She pleaded.

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. "Fine, I'll _listen _but that's it."

"Thank you. Look, you two are dating now..."

"We're not dating."

She rolled her own eyes. "You're _dating_, whether you like it or not. Can I finish now?"

I sighed. "Fine, continue."

"Thanks. As I said, now that you guys are _dating_ things are still the same. The plan is a lot more simple now; Break his heart before he breaks yours. Make him love you, stick around long enough to keep him tied down, and then brake it all off at the last second. It's the worst thing ever, but it'll work." She finished. "So, what do you think?"

"I think you've lost it." I admitted, shaking my head.

"Oh c'mon Grace." She groaned, throwing her hands up in frustration.

"No, don't even try it. All I was supposed to do was screw over _Murphy, _but now you want me to screw over Connor? I didn't even wanna do this before, so why would I wanna do this now?!"

"Because, think about this Grace. It was Connor that did it to me, what makes you so sure he wouldn't have done it to you after you gave him the cookie? You know just as well as I do now that the chances of him doing that are higher now. And that gives you all the more reason to do this." She said, standing in front of me.

I sighed. "Camille, this is too far. To get _him _to actually fall for me, I'd have to do a lot. Like have sex with him and god-knows what else. I don't think I'm mentally ready for that kind of thing."

"You don't _have _to have sex with him Gracie, just give him enough to keep him coming. Drive him towards the edge and then pull back at the last second, make him want it. Then the more he's around you the easier it'll be, trust me." She smiled.

"Trust you? You want me to take _relationship _advice from someone who's longest relationship was a one-week fuck-fest at a married man's beach house?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"It was a week and a half, and I didn't know he was married!" She exclaimed, glaring. "And I might not know anything about relationships, but I know how to keep a guy coming back, how to drive him nuts. You listen to me and it'll work."

Sighing quietly to myself, I once again sat down on my bed, thinking it all through. I was pretty sure I was way in over my head, but what she was saying made sense. And the more I listened and pondered over it, the more _she _made sense. Connor had been sweet and kind to her in the beginning, then abandoned her once he'd had her. So when I thought it through, I knew he'd have done the same to me - had I given in at the beginning. Plus, I'd had this kind of thing done to me before, so for someone to plan on doing it to me _again_, it was like a sucker-punch to the stomach. And all of a sudden, my sadness turned to anger. He deserved to know how it felt, how _his _girls felt.

"Fine, I'll do it." I agreed.

She smiled widely, yanking me up from the bed to pull me into a tight hug.

"You're awesome sis!"

"I know." I said, pulling back. "But this isn't just about you anymore, this is about me too."

She nodded. "I know, and I completely understand."

"Thank you. Now get out, I have to get ready for school." I said, playfully shoving her.

"Okay, okay I'm going." She sang, heading towards the door. "Grace?"

I looked away from my wardrobe and at Camille, who looked strangely guilty.

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry...about everything. Pushing you into this, I didn't mean to make you miserable. We only have each other in this world, and I feel really bad that I did it to you. You're the last person I want to push away. Everyone hates me, I couldn't stand it if you looked at me the same way." She said.

The seriousness in her voice completely stunned me. She hardly every apologised to anyone, let alone me.

"It's okay Camille. Us against the world right?" I reassured, smiling slightly,

"Right." She winked, opening the door before leaving my room.

~...~...~...~...~...~

"Please _god _tell me you're joking?" Jade begged, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Nope," I confirmed, shaking my head. "I am all for it."

Turning up to school at 1:30 had been quite a hard thing to explain to my teachers, but it had been easy for me - especially with my lying ability. But as soon as I'd arrived, I'd told everything to Jade. Telling someone about this stuff really took a lot of the weight from my shoulders, and Jade was always willing to listen. And though I knew her reaction would be bad, it was one of the reasons I was friends with her. Her blunt words and the fact that she didn't beat around the bush about stuff.

"Grace," She whined, pouting like a child. "This is _wrong."_

"No." I said, shaking my head. "What he did was wrong, all I'm doing is teaching him a lesson. The lesson that he can't just bang his way through women without paying for it."

"Are you actually _hearing _you right now? Like, at all?"

I narrowed my eyes slightly, feeling a bit confused. "What?"

She rolled her eyes. "You sound exactly like Camille. All this talk of revenge and paying him a lesson. Two weeks ago and you wouldn't have given a shit."

"Well I wasn't seeing this guy two weeks ago. Look, judging by Camille's statistics it should be over in about three weeks. I'll still have enough time to study _and _spend time with you. Don't worry so much." I told her, nudging her shoulder lightly.

Jade sighed but nodded, smiling slightly. "Okay, but you _better _make time for me. Soul-mates don't just come around every day you know."

"I know." I laughed, pulling her into a one-armed hug that she returned.

"Hey Grace?"

"Yeah?"

"If you fuck him, let me know every explicit detail."

I playfully pushed her and rolled my eyes, both of us laughing.

~...~...~...~...~...~

Later on at night, I laid down on my bed, pondering over everything that had happened so far. The plan, finding out that Camille actually fucked Connor instead of Murphy, and getting myself into yet another insane revenge-plan. Anyone else would've said no at the beginning, told Camille which way to go and that she could do it all herself - but not me. Nope, I had an insane urge to please people. Saying no was actually hard for me, and I guess Camille knew it too. Or she was just really oblivious and thought I was doing it for my own satisfaction, which I wasn't.

A faint tapping sound reached my ears and I narrowed my eyes, rising from the bed and heading towards the window. It wouldn't have been Jade, she had her own key to my house. And I knew that Camille was out tonight working, so the only thing that came to mind was burglar or rapist. But then I realised, neither one would've been throwing stones at my window.

"Oh you've got to be kidding." I muttered, sliding the window open as I realised who the culprit was.

"Hey stranger." He greeted, leaning back against the car.

"What are you doing here Connor?"

He shrugged, glancing around the deserted street. "Thought I'd come an' see ye. Is dat so bad?"

"I guess not." I said, resting my hands on the edge of the window.

"So, ye fancy comin' out tonight?"

"I don't know, I'm a little tired out."

"Understandable," He nodded. "So why don' I come up?"

I smiled to myself, feeling a little tingly as I tried to push the feelings away. _He _was the one that hurt Camille, _he _was the one that bumped-and-dumped women without them knowing. So why was I still feeling so weird around him?.

"If I let you up, d'you promise not to try anything?" I asked, though I inwardly knew the answer.

"Can' promise dat lass." He grinned.

I dragged out a long loud sigh, tapping my fingernails against the bottom of the window. I already knew my answer, but teasing him was fun for me.

"Ye know, it's gettin' pretty chilly down 'ere."

I giggled to myself and nodded, patting the window with both hands. "C'mon up."

* * *

Author's Note:

Hi readers! So this chapter isn't as long as the others, but I hope it was okay, and I hope you've all enjoyed the story so far.

Thank you for the reviews, they mean a lot to me. Although reviews probably mean a lot to every author on here.

Anyway, please review, favourite, or follow if you can. ;)


	18. Chapter 18

He made his way to the door and I leaned back into my room, sliding the window shut.

What on earth was I doing?! All I had to do was follow Camille's advice, get him to fall - not invite him into our house. And what was worse, was the fact that there were pictures of me and Camille all over the place. Our parents were obviously proud of how we'd turned out, so they tried to flog us as much as they could. But I knew that if Connor saw the pictures, he'd know Camille was my sister, and would most likely freak out. But then again, he might not even remember. Though I knew I was just trying to stay positive, trying to reassure myself that nothing would go wrong. But there was too much that could go wrong, and they were the thoughts clouding my brain in that moment. Still, I couldn't exactly leave him outside _now. _

I rolled my eyes and once again slid open the window, leaning out further to see him waiting patiently near the door.

"Hey, Connor!" I called.

He turned around, looking up at me. "Ye a'right lass?"

I nodded. "Fine, just come here a second."

Despite looking very confused at my request, he walked across the grass until he was directly underneath my window.

"What d'ye need?"

"See that thing there that looks like a ladder?" I gestured to the white-painted frame that Camille used to get to my window.

"Aye." He slowly replied, his eyes narrowed again.

"If you climb it you can get onto the small ledge. When you do, you'll be able to get to my window."

His eyes widened slightly. "Ye wan' me ta climb yer house lass?!"

I smiled and nodded. "Uh-huh. Just think of it as proving how much you like me."

He chuckled to himself and shook his head, slowly shrugging off his coat.

"What are you doing?"

"It'll be easier, trus' me." After a few seconds he finally managed to get off the large black coat, bunching it up in his hands as he looked back up at me. "Catch."

I nodded and held my hands out of the window, easily taking hold of the coat as he threw it high in the air.

As he started towards the frame, I quickly moved back into my room, placing his coat on the vanity-chair before looking back through the window. He'd already gotten onto the ledge and was now slowly inching towards my window, making sure to keep himself pinned against the side of the house as he did. It was pretty east to lose your balance on the ledge, which was always why I was so impressed when Camille climbed through my window. It was hard for me when sober, so I couldn't imagine how difficult it was for her when she was hammered.

Connor finally reached the window and got a good grip on the bottom. I moved back towards my bed, allowing him room to climb in.

"Christ lass."

"Don't be a baby, it's not that hard." I smirked, sitting cross-legged in the middle of my bed.

He turned around and rolled his sleeved up to his elbows, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Not dat hard?"

I shrugged. "If my sister can do it drunk off her ass, you can do it when sober."

"I s'pose dat's fair enough."

I nodded and he slowly started to take in my room. Thankfully there weren't any photos of me and Camille in the room, since most of them were scattered in other areas of the house. And my school-books always stayed in a drawer in my closet, so there was no way he'd see any of that either. Right now my room looked like a normal girls room.

"You look like you've never seen a girls room before." I told him, moving around so that I was lying down on my stomach, arms folded in front of me.

"Ye'd be right Gracie." He admitted.

My eyes widened and jaw-dropped in disbelief. "Come again?"

He nodded and turned to face me, finally done with the inspection. It was hard for me to believe that he'd never seen a girls room before, considering the fact that he and his brother were banging their way through South Boston.

"Well, I _have _seen a girls bedroom b'fore. Not in a while though."

I shuffled over on the bed, allowing him room to sit down.

"How come?"

"I don' tink ye wanna know the answer." He shrugged, smirking slightly.

I rolled my eyes. "Connor, you can tell me. I won't care."

He stared down at me in thought before finally nodding, reclining onto his forearms. "Well, I don' 'ave the patience ta get dat far."

"Oh." I sighed in realisation. "So, you never wanted to get into a comfy bed?"

"I was pretty occupied wit tryin' ta get into the girl first." He shrugged, grinning as I smacked his shoulder.

"Classy."

"You asked."

I rolled my eyes and nodded, turning over onto my back so that it was easier to see him.

"So, what are you doing here?"

"Came ta see ye." He replied, running the tips of his fingers over the back of my hand.

I nodded and leaned up into a sitting position, pulling my knees up against my chest. It was stressful, being around him now. I'd liked him so much before, but knowing that he'd been the one to hurt Camille, it was a both stressing and upsetting. I had no idea how I felt, and that was the thing getting to me...not knowing how I felt. I always knew how I felt about things. So when the time came that I had no idea how I felt about the matter, well it was very annoying.

"You mean you're not tired of me yet?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.

"Aye." He chuckled, lightly taking my hand in his.

I smiled to myself as he brought the back of my hand to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to my knuckles. It was so hard to see him as the bad guy when he did it, but it must've been how he was with Camille for the first few days; Caring and sweet.

"Having fun there Romeo?"

Instead of only small kisses to the back of my hand, they were now open-mouthed kisses to my wrist, slowly trailing up my forearm. As cheesy as it seemed to me, it felt _really _good. And the act was doing nothing for myself-control.

"Maybe." He grinned, carrying on.

"You still looking for the switch?" I breathed, tensing slightly as he got higher and higher.

Thankfully he stopped, but only to give me a confused look. "Switch?"

"The switch that'll make me wanna jump you. You know, that one spot that girls can never resist once a guy finds it." I explained.

A look of realisation and understanding crossed his face and he nodded, smirking slightly afterwards.

"So, where's yers lass?"

"You really think I'm gonna tell you?" I asked in disbelief, earning a small nod from him. "Nuh-uh, you're gonna have to find it yourself."

He shrugged. "Have it yer way den."

A small squeak passed through my lips as he pushed his way through my knees, resting a hand either side of my head. He'd done it so fast I barely managed to keep up, all I knew was that I was on my back with him in between my legs. And since my knees were still raised, he was a lot closer than I'd planned on letting him get. The last time I'd been in this kind of position, I'd felt the worst pain ever. The 'breaking-process' as Camille liked to put it. But while I'd - once again - fallen into my thoughts, Connor managed to find something to do. Not that I was complaining of course.

"You're gonna try and find my switch huh?" I quietly asked, resting my hands on his shoulders.

He smirked up at me and nodded, nuzzling my chest with his nose. "Aye."

I giggled at the sensation and bit my bottom lip, relaxing into my bed. "Good luck."

"Don' need it lass, 'm Irish remember? Got all the luck I need."

As he occupied himself with attempting to find my 'Switch', I once again fell into my thoughts. What on earth was I doing?. This was the guy that slept with my sister, broke her heart - assuming she had one of course. But if he had done to her what he was doing to me now, I couldn't exactly blame her for actually sleeping with him. If anything I judged her for not doing it sooner. But still, I wasn't ready to have sex with him. And not just because of Camille's plan. Sure, having sex with him now would risk any chance of our 'break-his-heart' plan working. But it wasn't just that - I wasn't ready for it. Sure he was a great guy and everything - putting aside the bumping-and-dumping. But I couldn't do it, not until I was sure he'd actually stick around afterwards. And right now, I was on the fence about it.

"Connor," I started, but it faded into a loud gasp as his mouth found a certain spot on my neck. My left hand lightly clawed at his back while my right ran into his hair, getting a tight grip.

"Dere it is." He smirked, almost immediately sucking the spot.

Despite how much I knew my body would protest, I had to stop it. With him now having picked up the pace since he'd found my 'switch', I knew it wouldn't be long before my hormonal urges took over. And if they did all rational thought would be gone from my mind. I couldn't risk turning into a younger version of my sister, only attracting the douche-bags of Boston. So with all the power I had left, I gripped his shoulders, gently pushing him back.

"Ya a'right lass?" He asked, his eyes narrowed in confusion.

"I'm fine." I rushed. But I knew he didn't believe it, with my voice having gone a little higher.

"Ye can tell me Gracie."

I sighed and nodded, taking a deep breath before explaining just what it was that I felt.

"I can't fuck you, Connor. I mean, maybe at some point I'll be ready and it'll be amazing but that's not now. I'm not saying we can't do anything else, but I have to remind you that I'm not good at this stuff. I've had one boyfriend and we didn't exactly do much apart from that. You think you can wait a while?"

His eyes flickered across my face for a second or two, probably thinking over what I'd said. And to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if I never saw him again. The last thing a guy wanted to hear was that he had to wait for sex. Sure I'd be disappointed if he disappeared, but I'd get over it. Camille probably had some good remedies to get over a guy. Though judging by her past actions, to get over someone I'd probably have to get under someone else.

"O' course I can Gracie. Yer not ready for dat yet, I get it. Sure, I'll wait for ye." He shrugged.

I smiled in relief and laced my fingers behind his neck, gently leading his mouth down to mine. He got stuck in of course, tilting his head to get a better angle.

"Thank you." I sighed as he paused, resting his forehead on mine.

"No worries Grace. But yer right." He said.

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "Huh?"

"When we 'ave sex, it _will _be amazin'. An' ye may not be good at dis stuff, but I am. An' I'll teach ye everythin' ye need ta know lass." He smirked.

"Cocky are we?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.

"I prefer ta tink o' it as confident."

I rolled my eyes and smiled, pulling his mouth back to mine.

~...~...~...~...~...~

After slowly waking up the next day, I realised I was late for school - again. So, I just laid there, thinking about nearly _everything. _Connor was still fast asleep, snoring quietly behind me. It was strange for me, waking up with someone other than my drunk-ass sister in the bed. Strange, but nice. Not that I'd ever tell anyone about it. Well, except for Jade, who'd probably find out everything that happened last night. Though, there wasn't much to really tell. We'd made-out for a while, roamed towards other places, but thankfully he didn't push me too far. And before I knew it, he was staying over and I was in his shirt - again.

Connor stirred behind me and I waited patiently for him to wake up. I couldn't have been more grateful that Camille wasn't home, if she was she'd probably throw a fit. Either that or Connor would recognize her and take off. Our position wasn't the best one to be fair, and like Murphy had when I'd slept there, Camille would've definitely jumped to some conclusions.

I'd gone to sleep with my head on his chest, but at some point during the night I'd rolled over, my back now against his front. The thick blanket of my bed covered our lower-halves, hiding everything from the waist down. His left arm loosely rested over my waist, the fingers of his left hand laced with mine. Meanwhile, his right arm was above both our heads, the hand limp a few inches from my forehead. My right arm was being used as another pillow for me, though my fingers were pretty close to his. It had to have been the most comfortable position I'd ever been in, but that made it bad. I couldn't get too close to him, not now and not ever. The 'break-his-heart' plan was in motion and I was not giving up on this one, he wouldn't do to me what he'd done to god-knows how many other girls.

"Ye awake Grace?" He quietly asked.

"Mhmm."

The bed behind me dipped slightly as he moved around, gently rolling me over onto my back. He leaned on his right forearm, looking down at me as his right hand took hold of mine. I smiled slightly as he leaned in, softly pecking my lips.

"Mornin'."

"Hi, no work today?" I asked, tilting my head slightly to see him better.

"Nah, not today. What 'bout ye? Anythin' ta do today?" He questioned, the thumb of his left hand stroking the back of mine.

"Nope, not this morning anyway." I lied.

He nodded in understanding. "Fair enough.

We both fell into a comfortable silence and I looked down at our joined hands, just noticing the tattoo. He silently watched as I brought it closer to my face, tilting our conjoined hands to read the words on his finger; Veritas.

"What does it mean?"

"It's Italian, means Truth. Murph' got one too, on his right hand, his means justice." He explained.

I nodded, narrowing my eyes curiously. "You got any others?"

"Aye, the one on me neck. An' the one me arm." He shrugged, nodding towards his forearm.

"I've always been too scared to get a tattoo, needles freak me out a little."

He smirked and nodded. "Fair enough I s'pose, pretty common fear."

"Did it hurt?" I asked.

"Nah, but me and Murph' are used to rough-housin', so we've felt worse."

I nodded in understanding and slowly brought the back of his hand to my mouth, tracing small kisses across the tattoo. But as I pulled away, I found him grinning down at me.

"What was dat fer?"

"Just felt like the right thing to do." I shyly shrugged.

He chuckled to himself and leaned back in, gently fusing our mouths together.

"Grace?!"

We both pulled back and he narrowed his eyes in confusion as I shot up into a sitting position, releasing any hold I had on him - Camille was home. He silently watched as I climbed out of the bed, nervously clutching my hair.

"Oh no." I squeaked.

"What is it?" He asked, pulling the blankets away to place his feet on the carpeted floor.

I sighed and turned to face him, chewing my bottom lip nervously. "It's my sister, if she sees you she'll tell my parents and I cannot have that happening."

On some level I was lying, but on another I wasn't. Camille had told my parents I was seeing Dylan, and that had gone less than well. Besides, I'd never seen a guy move faster than he did when he found out his girlfriends parents were coming home. It always worked on Camille's conquests, and would most-likely work with Connor. Especially if he found out my dad's career choice.

"Gracie."

"Oh my god I can't believe this is happening." I whined, pacing in front of him.

"Grace." He repeated, earning my attention.

"Yeah?"

He rolled his eyes and gently took my hands, pulling me to stand between his legs. "I'm not scared o' ye parents lass, or ye sister."

I nodded and placed both hands on his shoulders, looking down at him. "Connor,"

"Aye?"

"My dad's a cop."

His smile slowly faded and he glanced at the door nervously.

"With a gun." I added.

"Fuck."

I nodded and made sure my bedroom door was locked before rushing around the room, tossing his jeans and coat towards him. Thankfully, he didn't object. If anything he was just as eager to put them on. And when he was done he stood from the bed, smirking down at me despite our situation.

"What?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"Yer wearin' me shirt."

I rolled my eyes and lowered my hands, about to peel off the shirt. But his hands quickly took hold of my wrists, preventing me from carrying on.

"What are you doing?"

"Keep et, looks better on ye anyway." He shrugged, pulling on his black coat to cover his bare-chest.

I smiled to myself and nodded, following him towards the window. "So, I'll see you soon?"

He nodded and threw one leg through the window, straddling the windowsill before turning back to me.

"What?" I repeated, crossing my arms.

"I don' know lass, maybe it's 'cause I'm a romantic or somethin' but this is all very 'Romeo-&-Juliet' don' ye tink?" He winked.

"No, your family aren't trying to kill my family. And I'm not a fourteen year old girl, and you're not a sixteen year old boy. Besides, hopefully we both don't die at the end." I said, rolling my eyes.

A loud banging echoed through the room and my eyes immediately widened, along with Connors.

"Grace! Wake up you lazy little shit!"

"Is dat yer sister?" He asked in disbelief.

I nodded and sighed nervously. "Yeah, can you please jump now?"

He laughed and rolled his eyes, leaning back to fit his other leg through the window. "Gracie?"

"Yeah?" I groaned, turning away from the door to face him.

With his back facing the street he leaned back through the window, gripping the back of my neck with one hand as he brought out mouths together. I smiled and laced my fingers behind his neck, tilting my head as he slid his tongue in.

"I'll see ye soon." He smirked, pulling back.

"Uh-huh." I breathed, earning a small chuckle from him.

"Bye Gracie."

I watched as he climbed down the side of the house, jumping down with a silent thud before heading towards Rocco's parked car. I had a feeling the Italian would be a little pissed at his car having been gone so long, but Connor would probably calm him down some way or another.

"Grace!"

Giving Connor one last wave, I shut the window as I leaned back into my room. I knew I couldn't answer the door wearing Connor's shirt, so I quickly tugged it over my head and threw it underneath the sheets, pulling on my soft-blue dressing gown before unlocking and opening the door.

"Christ Camille, what?" I asked, rubbing my eyes to make it seem as though I'd just woken up.

"I noticed your bag on the banister. Why aren't you in school?" She asked, her eyes narrowed sceptically.

"Why aren't you at work?"

"Touche."

I smiled and shrugged, leaning against the doorway. "So, how was work last night?"

She tilted her head slightly, shrugging her shoulders. "Can't complain. What about you? Did you do anything eventful last night?"

I held back the threatening smirk and shook my head at her, biting down on my bottom lip - again.

"Nah, it was pretty dead."

* * *

Author's Note:

Hi readers! So, I tried to make this chapter long as an apology for not updating as much as I used to. I've been pretty occupied with my 'Red-Canyon' story, but hopefully this long chapter will make up for it.

As usual, thank you guys for reviewing it means a lot. Please Review, Favourite, or Follow if you can. ;)


	19. Chapter 19

Being late for school - again - was not something I'd planned. Yet here I was, running down the slippery hallways, occasionally sliding as I turned a corner. Jade had no idea why I was late either, but I was pretty sure she'd help me out. The current lesson going on was Math, something any other day I'd be willing to miss, but not today. Despite the whole 'revenge-plan' going on, my school work was still very important to me. I still had a lot of studying to do, which I'd been slacking on since the start of Camille's plan. And since I was now turning up late to school, I had work to catch up on too. But thankfully, I had Jade around. We shared notes all the time, though usually it was me giving them to her when she was late. Never in my life had I seen our roles reversing.

As the familiar door appeared I slowed down my pace, pausing outside the door to adjust my clothes and fix my hair. The last thing I needed was to go into the class looking like I'd ran a marathon - even if it was how I felt. Taking another deep-breath, I gently pulled down on the door handle, pushing the class door open.

"Ah Miss Carter, nice to see you." Our teacher - Mr Abbott - sarcastically greeted.

I nodded and glanced around the room, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the attention I was receiving. Why was it that when I entered a class late, people stared at me as though I'd murdered a priest. It was pretty creepy to say the least.

"Yeah, sorry I'm late. Had...girl problems." I slowly replied, inwardly smacking myself across the head.

Mr Abbott grimaced and shook his head, staring down at the work on his desk. "Don't need to know the details, just sit down."

I sighed in relief and rushed towards my seat, the rest of the class going back to whatever it was they were doing before I entered. Well, everyone apart from Jade. She immediately turned in her seat, facing me with wide eyes.

"Where the hell were you?"

"Woke up late." I shrugged, pulling out my books.

She nodded sceptically, a small smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. "Uh-huh. And what did you do last night?"

I stared at her, my eyes narrowed in confusion. "Nothing. Why?"

"Oh no reason," She shrugged, sighing dramatically. "But that hickey on your neck is telling me differently."

My eyes immediately widened as she handed me her small mirror. The bruise was small but big enough to draw attention, it was a light pink colour, tinged with some green. And right then all I wanted to do was find Connor, and shoot his balls off.

"Damn." I hissed, pulling my hair over my shoulders to cover it up.

"So, my darling friend, what _did _you get up to last night?" Jade repeated, taking her mirror back from me.

After a minutes thought I sighed to myself, knowing she was going to find out no matter what. Besides, the girl was my best friend, who else was I going to tell about it?. And boy did I wanna tell someone.

"Connor showed up at my house. Camille was working, so were my parents - as usual." I shrugged.

"Oh my god! I want details...now!" She silently exclaimed, excitedly turning further in her seat.

I rolled my eyes. "Nothing happened."

She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. "Yeah and your sister's a virgin, my brother's not a perv, my daddy's not sleeping with his secretary..."

"Okay, I get it." I groaned, cutting her off before she could go on. And believe me, she would have.

"Good, glad I got my point across. Now tell me _everything."_

"Uh...okay," I started, thinking back to last night. "Well, I made him climb the window so he didn't see the photos of Camille in the house..."

She smiled. "Oh my god! Did he do it?"

I rolled my eyes - again. "Of course he did."

"OMG, that is _very _'Romeo-&-Juliet'."

"You know, he said that as well when I made him climb out the window. I don't see it." I told her, shaking my head in thought.

"_Anyway,_" She pushed on, waving her hand as a 'carry-on' gesture.

"Uh...oh yeah. He came in, we made out, he talked about finding my 'switch'..."

"Did he find it?!"

Despite being annoyed at the fact she'd cut me off - again, I carried on. "Yes, can I finish now?"

"Fine."

"Thanks. So, we made out and stuff, got down to our underwear somehow...I don't know Jade it was moving pretty fast. We didn't have sex though, I asked him to wait for me and he said it was fine. Next thing I know I'm late for school and he's cuddled up behind me. Camille came home, so I made him go through the window. He was probably freezing on the way home." I added in the last part, my eyes narrowed in thought.

"Why would he be cold?" She asked.

"Because he left me his shirt. It was what I was wearing and he just told me to keep it, said it looked better on me. But that was about it, nothing else happened." I shrugged, crossing my arms on the desk.

"Grace, are you telling me that after _all _that, you aren't feeling anything for him?" She raised her eyebrows at me, probably knowing the answer already.

"I do feel something for him, Jade. He's sweet, charming, hot as hell. I mean, how could I not? But it doesn't change the fact that I'm planning to break his heart. He would've done it to me, if I'd slept with him at the beginning." I admitted, shrugging my shoulders.

She nodded in understanding and shrugged. "I guess that's fair enough. But if you're really worried about that, try talking to him about it. Guys can't read minds yah know."

"Uh-uh, no way." I objected, shaking my head. "I can't talk to _him _about that. Besides Camille's plan probably won't work, there's no way a guy can fall in love with me. I'm too opinionated."

"Don't be such a pessimist Grace, just go with it. Although, I really wish you wouldn't." She sighed.

"You know, you were much more supportive when I was supposed to be screwing over Murphy."

"Well, you weren't falling for Murphy!"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "I am _not _falling for Connor, okay? Never in a million years would I fall for a playboy. And never in a million years would he fall for _me._"

She rolled her eyes. "These self-esteem issues of yours are starting to annoy me. He's already halfway there, you've known him for what...a week?" I nodded and she continued. "And you guys have already gotten to second base, slept in the same bed - at both your places might I add. And he's actually willing to wait for you to fuck him, just think about that for a sec."

I did think about it - a lot. What she was saying did make sense, he was pretty much halfway there. So now the chances of Camille's plan working had increased. Still, it didn't stop my guilty-conscience kicking in. I'd been on the receiving end of it, thinking someone actually likes you, only to find out they didn't and only wanted sex. Now, I didn't exactly want sex from Connor, I didn't even plan on having sex with him - not that he needed to know that. But I still felt bad for putting him through all of it.

"You thinkin' about it?" Jade asked, tilting her head knowingly.

"Yeah." I sighed, shaking my head slightly. "What do I do? I don't wanna do that to him, but I can't say no to Camille either."

She shrugged apologetically and I groaned, letting my head 'thud' onto the desk.

~...~...~...~...~...~

I walked back into the house and sighed, thudding back against the front door. School had been fine, Jade had leant me her notes, so now I had studying to do. But I couldn't get the whole 'revenge-plan' situation out of my head. I mean, what was I supposed to do?. If I told Camille I wanted out, she'd tell Connor our entire plan. Although, I could've just called everything off with Connor. Made up some shit, told him I had some emotional issues to deal with. He'd probably understand, but that just made me even less enthusiastic about calling it off. He was too nice to break things off with, plus he was the first guy since Dylan that I actually liked. Did I really wanna throw it all away?.

"Hey sis." Camille greeted, strolling down the stairs.

"Hi." I sighed, dumping my bag onto the banister.

"So, I was cleaning your room through this morning." She continued.

I turned from my spot in the living room doorway, facing her with wide eyes. "You did what?"

She shrugged. "I cleaned, thought I'd do something nice for you, since you were doing this plan for me and everything."

"No, you weren't doing this for me." I stated, shaking my head in annoyance. "You were snooping, weren't you?"

"The details don't really matter." She said, causing me to roll my eyes. "What _does _matter though, is this."

My eyes widened slightly as she pulled a familiar brown sweater out from behind her back, letting it dangle from her index finger. The cold look on her face was enough to make me nervous, but I attempted to hide it. Not that I could, I instantly started fidgeting on the spot, a clear sign of how uncomfortable I was in that moment.

"I...uh...don't know what that is." I stuttered, resisting the urge to punch myself.

"Don't bullshit me Gracie, I know who's this is, I actually took this off him, once upon a time." She replied, causing me to shudder in disgust.

"Just leave it Camille." I sighed, heading into the kitchen. But like every other time, she followed me in, determined to not let it go.

"No, I won't 'leave-it' Grace!"

"Why not?" I demanded, spinning to face her.

"Because, I asked you to make him fall in love with you, not sleep with him!" She exclaimed, narrowing her eyes.

"I didn't sleep with him." I sighed.

"Bullshit." She spat.

"Actually it's not, I didn't sleep with him. Not all girls are like you Camille, we don't all fuck the first guy to compliment us."

As soon as her face fell, I realised what I'd actually said. I hadn't meant for it to slip out, and as good as I felt saying it, I knew it wouldn't have helped anything. She didn't deserve that, some might say that she did, but I knew she didn't. Sure she slept around, but she still felt things. She still got upset when guys disappeared on her, still got excited when she had a date. And despite everything, she'd always been there for me, always listened when I asked her to. So being the one to hurt her was something I wasn't comfortable with.

"Camille, I didn't mean it." I pleaded, crossing my arms.

"You did," She shrugged, her voice quieter. "Otherwise you wouldn't have said it."

"Maybe I did mean it, but I'm still sorry about it."

The room was filled with awkward silence after that. And I found myself hoping she'd say something, anything, a quiet Camille was never good. At least when she was screaming out swear-words or huffing around the room I knew what she was up to, how she felt about it. But right now, I couldn't tell - and it scared me to death.

"Do you like this guy, Grace?" She finally spoke, but it wasn't quite what I expected.

"Huh?"

"Do you like him?"

I paused for a moment, debating on whether I should tell her the truth. But I realised it wouldn't change anything, she'd find out no matter what. "Yeah, yeah I do."

She nodded, staring down at the floor. "And, does he like you?"

"I think so." I hesitatingly replied.

"Well," She dragged out, slowly walking towards me. "Looks like you're out of the plan."

My eyes widened as she handed me the sweater, crossing her arms afterwards. "What?"

"You like him." She stated, smiling slightly. "I can't make you do this, I won't hurt you like that."

"But what about the revenge thingy?"

"Well, it's only one guy, right? I mean, there'll be another guy who'll come and screw me over, when that day comes though, I'll just get one of my stripper friends to do it." She shrugged.

"I'm sorry, I really am. For everything, I know how much this must bother you." I sighed.

"Not as much as you'd think. I mean, sure it sucks that you're falling for a guy who bumped-and-dumped me. And yeah, it _really _sucks that he's decided to stick around for you. But, I'll get over it. It's no biggie." She reassured.

On some level, a part of me did believe her, it believe that she _was_ over it. But there was another part of me thinking it was too good to be true, the realistic part of my brain. But still, there wasn't much I could do. She was giving me a chance to get out, and god was I taking it. It would definitely take some of the guilt away that's for sure.

"Thank you, for letting me out of it." I said, tilting my head slightly.

"Don't worry about it, you like this guy so you deserve it." She shrugged, pulling me into a tight hug.

"I love you sis." I muttered, wrapping my arms around her waist.

"Love you too Gracie."


	20. Chapter 20

Author's Note:

Hi guys! Another note to say thank you so much for all the reviews, they really mean a lot to me. I've been having a bit of writers block for this story, so if I don't update as much as I used to then that's why. However I will not be stopping this story any time soon.

Anyway, thank you again. And review, favourite, or follow if you can. :)

* * *

I practically skipped into McGinty's the next night, completely content with my life. Camille had let me out of the plan, which meant I could carry on with life as normal. Sure, I'd eventually have to let Connor know that I was a minor, but I didn't plan on letting that happen yet. I'd probably let him know later on in life, if I was with him for that long anyway. If I wasn't, then there was no reason for him to know. And until I absolutely _had _to tell him, I wasn't going to. And now that I knew Camille wouldn't either, everything seemed so much more easier.

"Eh Gracie!"

I smiled and hopped up onto a nearby stool. "Hi Murphy."

"What's got ye so 'appy tonight lass?"

"What makes you think I'm happy?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.

He smirked and shrugged. "I got dis little thing where I can tell what a girls feelin'."

I rolled my eyes. "So that you know which one's are emotionally damaged and available, right?"

"Right. So, what's got ye so happy?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "I'm just having one of those days."

"Fair 'nough."

"So, where's Rocco or your twin?" I asked, resting my folded arms on the bar top.

"Rocco's...workin'." I narrowed my eyes slightly at his hesitant reply, but let him carry on. "An' me dear brother is out somewhere."

I nodded in understanding. "So, just me and you tonight?"

He nodded. "Aye."

"You don't mind me sticking around do you? I mean, it's just that I haven't got anywhere else to go."

"It's a'right lass." He reassured with a light chuckle. "Ye can stay as long as ye want."

I sighed in relief and nodded. "Thanks. So, I'm curious about something."

"What would dat be Grace?"

"Why on earth are you alone on a Saturday night? I thought you'd be halfway home with a drunk red-head by now."

He took a long drag of his cigarette and I waited patiently for a reply. "Well, sometimes I jus' need a break."

My eyebrows raised. "Really?"

"Yup."

"Wow, and here I was thinking guys always wanted sex."

"Ye got a lot ta learn little Gracie." He smirked, blowing the smoke out.

I nodded and shuffled closer, tilting my head slightly. "Hey Murph'."

He turned to face me. "Aye?"

"You okay?" I asked, resting my head on my right palm.

"O' course 'm fine lass, why would ye think otherwise?"

"I don't know, I've probably got a sixth-sense for this kind of thing but I can tell when people are unhappy. According to my best friend I have this...thing, where I need to make them happy. So come on McManus, tell me what's going on in that Irish brain of yours." I shrugged, earning a small chuckle from him.

"Nothin' Grace, don' worry 'bout et." He reassured.

I pouted and rolled my eyes. "Fine, so what do you wanna do?"

"Firs' of all, we're gettin' some drinks down ye. Dat way yer more likely to talk." He grinned, waving Doc over.

"W...what can I get ye?" The old bartender asked, resting both hands flat on the bar-top.

"Two beers, I'll be payin' fer both o' course."

"B...be right back." Doc told us, letting out another loud 'Fuck!Ass!' as he passed by.

"You planning on interrogating me Murphy?" I teased, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Nah lass, jus' had a feelin' ye wanted a drink." He shrugged, putting the now-small cigarette into a nearby ashtray.

"Well your 'feeling' was spot on. Good work."

He nodded, looking rather proud of himself. "I do try."

Doc finally returned with two large glasses of beer, placing down one in front of me and the other in front of Murphy. The darker-haired twin immediately gulped down enarly half of his, while I took a small sip of mine. Thankfully I'd gotten used to the taste, but I wasn't sure I'd be ready for Whiskey yet.

"So, ask away McManus." I sighed in mock-annoyance.

"Oh I will Carter." He smirked, lighting up another cigarette.

~...~...~...~...~...~

"Okay, I have another question for you." I told him, folding my arms on the table.

Like every other time I came here, I'd lost track of time. Murphy and I had been talking for a while, even though it didn't seem that long. And like the times before, I'd also lost count of how many drinks I'd had. Did I feel drunk? Nope. But no one really knew until they stood up, then they either hit the deck or remained standing. But judging by the fact I was a little light-headed and feeling quite content, I assumed I was a little drunk if not a lot. I'd only be able to tell when I stood up, which I didn't plan on attempting for another hour at least.

"Ask away Gracie." He waved, downing another shot of whiskey. Unlike me, Murphy had almost instantly moved onto the harder stuff. Though I was pretty sure it took a lot for him to get drunk, since he obviously came to bars a lot with his brother. Their alcohol tolerance levels were probably pretty high.

"Okay, so you all know my lucky number. What's yours?" I curiously asked, leaning forward slightly.

He grinned and paused for a moment, taking yet another drag of yet another cigarette. "Ye really wanna know?"

I rolled my eyes. "Wouldn't have asked if I didn't."

"A'right, me lucky number is..." He took a long pause as we stared at each other, releasing the smoke through his lips.

"Murphy I swear to god!" I exclaimed, gently smacking my hands against the table.

He laughed at my impatience, leaning back against the wall. "Lords name, lass."

I groaned and folded my knees underneath me, giving myself more leverage to lean in closer. "C'mon, tell me."

Murphy leaned up closer, as though he was about to tell me some big secret. "I lost count."

"You are such a man-whore." I giggled, shaking my head at him.

"Oi! Yer the one dat asked." He replied defensively.

"Okay, okay, I guess I should have seen this coming. Okay then, what's your number for actual relationships?"

"Like dates and what-not?" I nodded in confirmation and he paused, eyes flickering as he thought. "Uh...'bout, five."

My eyes widened slightly. "Five?"

"Uh-huh."

"Fuck me." I muttered.

"When an' where?" He smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "Ass. But seriously, why five?"

He shrugged. "Not sure, sometimes I like a girl, sometimes I don'."

"That's actually fair enough."

"I know. Not sure what Connor's lucky number is though, ye'll 'ave ta ask him yerself."

"You know what, I probably will. I mean, he knows my number it's only fair I get to know his." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

Murphy nodded but narrowed his eyes, slightly tilting his head. "Ye not bothered by et?"

"Not really." I replied, shaking my head. "I mean, I didn't know him at the time so what do I have to be bothered by? Those girls may have had him then, but I'm the one that's got him now. And I don't plan on letting him go soon."

"Ye really are somethin' else Gracie." He chuckled, shaking his head in slight disbelief.

"Your brother tells me the exact same thing." I told him, tilting my head slightly.

"I mean et. Half the girls I talk ta wouldn' say what yer sayin' ta me now. They'd scream, hit me and fuck-knows what else."

I shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you. I guess I'm different."

He slowly nodded. "Aye."

I smiled and brought my hair over my left shoulder, toying with my pendant. "What?" I demanded, noticing his stare.

"Nothin', nothin'." He rushed.

I nodded sceptically and he slowly slid his hand across the table, the tips of his fingers grazing the back of my hand. Instead of pulling away though - like I should have, I allowed him to take my right hand in his own. Both our gazes remained on our currently linked hands. It was almost impossible for me to look away, I didn't know what to think about it, and it felt like everything had slowed down.

"D'ye think ye would've ever liked me, like ye like me brother?" He brought my hand back towards him, taking it with both hands.

"I...I don't know." I stuttered, my heartbeat increasing.

Murphy smiled slightly and brought my hand towards his lips, pressing soft kisses to each fingertip. His eyes narrowed though he seemed completely calm, a lot calmer than me that was for sure. I let out a small gasp as he lightly kissed the centre of my palm, before dragging his lips down towards my wrist.

"Ye never thought o' me dat way lass?"

Slowly, he moved across the table between us, gently gripping the back of my neck with his left hand. I held my breath as he stroked the side of my neck with the fingers of his right hand.

"Ye so gorgeous Gracie."

Before I could so much as utter a reply, he moved quickly, slanting his mouth over mine. I should have pulled away, should have shouted or screamed...but I didn't. I sighed into his mouth and gripped the back of his neck with my right hand, drawing him further in. Murphy grunted slightly and sped up his movement, letting his tongue slid against my closed lips.

"Grace!"

Finally, I came to my senses. I recoiled away from Murphy, panting as I pressed the back of my hand against my lips. What had I done?. I was no better than Camille and her slutty friends...no, I was worse. I'd kissed the guy I was seeing's twin brother - his best friend. And I didn't even want to think what would have happened to me, had Doc not called my name.

"Uh...yeah?!" I questioned, avoiding Murphy's gaze.

"D...Dere's a girl on the phone for ye, Camille!"

"Tell her I'll be right there!" I told him.

Doc nodded and headed into the back where the phone was kept, meanwhile I finally spared a glance at Murphy. The twin looked just as stunned and breathless as me, staring down at the table with wide eyes. We were just as bad as each other. He'd kissed his brothers girlfriend - if that was what I could be labelled as. And I'd kissed my boyfriend's brother...no, I'd kissed his _twin._ Which made it worse, ten times worse even.

"Murphy..." I silently started, but I had to pause. What was there to say?.

"It's a'right lass, jus' go take the call. We can talk when ye get back." He reassured, though he sounded slightly unsure at the moment.

I nodded - more to myself, and rose from my seat, heading into the hall where the phone was. Thankfully my breathing had returned to normal, but my nervous tingles hadn't. It was the exact same feeling one got if running from someone, like an adrenaline rush but at the same time it was scary as hell. I didn't like the feeling, but I couldn't think about it now. I had to see what my sister wanted, see if she was okay.

"Hi, Camille?" I asked, putting the receiver to my ear.

"Hey sis, guess who decided to stop by." She sang.

I narrowed my eyes slightly, leaning against the wall behind me. "Who?"

"Connor."

It felt as though everything was slowly crashing down. Why was Connor at my house? What had Camille told him?. All the questions were spinning around in my head and I suddenly felt very sick.

"Camille, what did you say to him?" I finally asked, clutching my stomach with one arm to stop the turns.

"Oh nothing much, but he's pretty eager to see you little sister. Looks a little pissed too, probably because I told him the truth." She replied, her tone frighteningly nonchalant.

"Camille, what did you say to him?"

"Why don't you come home and find out."

With that one last reply, she hung up the phone, leaving me scared and nervous in the hall. What had she done? Why had she done it?. I took deep breaths and rushed out of the hall, stopping as I reached Murphy's table.

"Listen Murphy, I have to home, but I'll speak to you about this soon."

He stood from his seat and grabbed his coat, pulling it on as he followed me out of the bar. "Grace! Wait!"

I waved a hand and a cab soon pulled up. "I can't talk Murphy, I _have _to get home."

"Is Connor dere?"

"No...yes...I mean, I can't explain it right now."

"Grace, what's wrong wit ye?" He asked.

I shook my head and pulled on the cab door, practically jumping into the back seats. "I can't explain it now. Murphy I swear I'll talk to you about what happened, but _later. _Please let me get home, if I don't something bad _will _happen."

"Jus' let me come wit ye." He sighed, shoving his hands into the coat pockets.

"Yes, just get in, okay? I don't have time for this."

I scooted over in the cab seats and he climbed in, slamming the door shut after him.

"Where to?" The cabbie questioned.

"Millstone Road, and make it fast."

He nodded and I took deep breaths as we started to move. Praying that my sister hadn't done something she shouldn't have.


	21. Chapter 21

Author's Note:

Hi readers! OMG you reviewers are AMAZING! Thank you so much for the reviews. But on another note, I've been getting very bad writers block, and I'm determined to make this chapter really good for you guys. However, since I've been getting writers block, I'm worried it won't be as good as I hope it would be. But I'm just going to write and hope for the best.

Anyway, thank you guys again for the reviews, fave's, and follows.

Review, Favourite, or Follow if you haven't already, they would mean a lot to me and the story. :)

* * *

When we finally pulled up to the house my hands were shaking, and my nauseas feeling hadn't passed either. If anything it had increased. And when the cab stopped I immediately felt idiotic for allowing Murphy to tag along. Because if Camille had told Connor everything - and I mean _everything, _then there was going to be a lot of shouting. Me at Camille, and Connor at me. So when I thought about Murphy coming in too, I knew he'd most likely shout too. And if that wasn't bad enough, we still had to discuss what happened back in the bar. Not that he would, but if Connor found out about that too, I'd be in even deeper shit - Murphy too probably. But if things weren't bad enough, there was still a small part of my brain telling me that there was a chance my older-sister hadn't told Connor anything, that she was drunk and in a strange mood tonight. But I knew I wasn't that lucky. I knew the universe wasn't that good to me.

"Fuck lass, is dat yer 'ouse?!" Murphy exclaimed in astonishment, staring at my house through his window.

"Yes. Look, I don't have any money." I sighed, turning to the driver.

The man turned in his seat, his eyes narrowed in annoyance. "You're kidding me right?"

"No, sorry."

"Well then why the fuck did you get in?!"

"It was just a quick thinking, look I'm really sorry. If you wait here then I'll grab some money from my house."

"I've heard that before." He scoffed.

"Look," Murphy butted in, leaning forward slightly. "I'll pay for ye Grace, jus' get in dat 'ouse.

"Are you sure?" I sighed, wringing my hands.

"O' course, jus' do what ye got ta do." He reassured, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I smiled gratefully and nodded before climbing out of the cab, rushing towards my house. I wasn't sure if Murphy was going to stay in the cab, or if he was going to follow me in, but I didn't really care. All that was running through my mind was the thought that I had to get into the house, and talk to Connor - or Camille I suppose. Wasting no time I tugged down on the door handle, practically stumbling into the house in my haste.

"Camille?" I panted, a result of my nervousness and slight run towards the house.

"In here Gracie!" Her laughing voice replied.

I took a deep breath and convinced myself to move, heading towards the source - the living room. I found Camille slouched down on the arm-chair, giggling to herself with a bottle of god-knows what in her right hand. She'd obviously been drinking - a lot, so maybe she was just playing a small prank on me tonight. Maybe Connor wasn't in the house, maybe he didn't know. There were so many 'maybe's' flying around my head I was just about ready to hyperventilate.

"Gracie's home," Camille sang. "Where have you been little sister?!"

"Just out." I shrugged, crossing my arms so that I could hide my shaky hands from view. "Is Connor here?"

Adding to my further nauseas feeling and worry, she nodded. "Uh-huh, in there." She pointed towards the kitchen.

Leaving my drunk-ass-hell sister in the living room, I made my way towards the kitchen, feeling worse with each step I took. Connor _was_ in the kitchen. His black pea-coat on one of the stools confirmed it. The man himself however, was leaning against the one of the counters, sleeves rolled up the elbows as he inhaled deeply on a cigarette. I wasn't sure if she'd told him anything yet, but judging by the expression on his face, I could tell he had a small suspicion of something.

"Uh...hi." I mumbled, chewing my bottom lip nervously.

His head snapped up but he remained in his position. "Hi stranger."

"I guess we have some stuff to talk about, huh?"

"Aye."

I nodded - more to myself - and moved forward, pulling myself up onto one of the stools. "So, I guess you recognize my sister."

He tilted his head slightly, a look of slight confusion on his face. "Eh?"

"You recognized Camille, right? So, now you know we're sisters." I clarified.

"I knew ye were sisters from the beginnin' lass." He admitted.

My eyes widened slightly, not sure if it was from disbelief or surprise. "Come again?"

"I knew ye were sisters. C'mon Gracie, 'm not dat oblivious. Ye necklaces tol' me everythin'."

"Wait, you know you fucked my sister, right?"

"O' course, I wasn' _dat _drunk." He shrugged.

"So, you knew from the start that Camille was my sister. Why didn't you say anything about it?" I questioned, feeling more confused than ever.

Connor shrugged again. "Maybe 'cause I didn' care dat much. I mean, I liked ye Gracie. I wasn' gonna mess it up by tellin' ye I fucked ye sister now was I?"

I smiled slightly, tugging my bottom lip between my teeth - again. "So, you actually liked me more than my sister?"

"Aye. But we got a bit more ta talk about don' ye think? Like dis 'plan' o' yers."

"What did she tell you about that?" I asked, feeling a little sick again.

"Not much, jus' dat it was 'cause I slept wit 'er. She didn' tell me anythin' more. Tol' me ye'd tell me the rest."

When Camille was sober, she was definitely getting an earful from me. At least if she'd told him everything I could have just talked about it. But no, she'd made it so that I had to tell him why we'd met in the first place.

"It's a long story." I muttered, shaking my head slightly.

He blew the remainder of smoke through his mouth, dabbing the cigarette out on the kitchen counter before walking towards me and occupying a nearby stool. "I got time, Gracie."

"Yeah, but Murphy doesn't."

"What?"

"I got a cab here, Murphy tagged along when I told him you were here." I clarified, shrugging my shoulders.

He nodded in realisation, resting his forearms on the counter. "Aye, he knew I was comin' 'ere."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "He knew? He didn't tell me you were here."

"Dat's 'cause I told him not ta. I was comin' 'ere ta patch things up wit ye sister, clear the air as it were."

"Why?"

"Couldn' keep seein' ye knowin' she was ye sister, knew she'd tell ye 'bout me at some point or another. Didn' wan' ye ta think o' me bad is all."

"Little late for that." I muttered.

"What d'ye mean?" He asked.

"I'll explain later. But your brother is outside in the cab, maybe we should bring him in or something." I suggested.

"No need."

Both Connor and I looked to see Murphy walk into the kitchen, shrugging off his own pea-coat.

"Did Camille let you in?" I asked, wondering where my older-sister was.

"Aye, she's a little pissed Grace." He chuckled, sitting next to his brother.

I nodded, feeling a little ganged-up on with both brothers being here. Especially with them both facing me, waiting patiently for whatever it was I had to say. It was a little overwhelming to say the least.

"Now dat Murph's 'ere, tell me what dis plan was about." Connor pushed.

"Okay, but you have to promise not to flip-out after it, okay? I mean, I didn't know you then, all I knew was what Camille told me." I begged.

"A'right."

"And you can't either." I turned my attention to Murphy, who nodded.

"Fine."

"Okay," I sighed, taking a long deep breath before carrying on. "After Connor fucked Camille, she was pretty beat up about it, wouldn't stop crying. But she gets upset, then she gets angry, which is how the plan was brought up. But here's the thing, you boys switched names, so when Camille slept with Connor she told me it was Murphy. Anyway, the day I met you guys was all planned out, she knew you would be there so she sent me in."

"Was the attack planned too?" Murphy asked, lighting up a cigarette.

"Yeah. I didn't know about that, though. My fear was real, so was the bruise on my arm. But it worked, it made you guys talk to me. The plan was to meet you boys, then try to get in with you. Camille wanted me to screw Murphy over, try and keep him from sleeping with any other girls as punishment or something." I shrugged.

"But I didn' fuckin' do anythin'!" The dark-haired twin exclaimed in annoyance.

"I know, I know." I rushed, running a nervous hand through my hair. "But you guys switched names, so you told me your real names but switched with Camille. So when she told me it was Murphy she slept with, I obviously thought it was Murphy. Anyway, that's not the worst part of the plan."

"What _is _the wors' part?" Connor questioned, his eyes narrowed.

"To get closer to you guys, Camille decided it would be easier if I was dating Connor." I revealed, feeling like a complete bitch as both boys' eyes widened.

"So, ye didn' really like me? Ye were jus' doin' et for ye sister?"

"I'm getting there!" I silently exclaimed, feeling more guilty at his angry tone. "Running into you guys at McGinty's was planned too, I had to figure out a way to get closer to Connor. So while Murphy was tied up with the red-head, and you were alone, I saw my chance. The drinking wasn't planned though, I'd never drank in my life and it really was my first time. Anyway, when you invited me back the next day, I wasn't going to turn up. I felt sick and I actually felt bad for doing it to you, but then Camille convinced me to do it, told me to think of you guys as another 'Dylan'. So I did and I came back."

"Fuckin' 'ell." Murphy muttered, shaking his head as he inhaled on the cigarette.

"Just let me get this all out, please?" I pleaded. I may have been a bitch to the twins, but they didn't have to make this any harder.

"Fine."

"Thanks. So, on Monday I realised that I couldn't go through with it. Mainly it was because I knew you guys would find out eventually, I mean you aren't _that _oblivious. Anyway I told Camille I wanted out and she threw a fit, didn't speak to me for at least two days. And I was so determined to get my life back to normal after that, I wasn't planning on seeing you guys again - ever. But then you turned up to my work," I nodded to Connor. "And asked me out. Believe what you want but I did like you, I didn't say yes for my sister, I said yes for me." I paused, taking another deep breath as I rubbed my forehead.

"Grace!" Camille called from the living room.

"What?!" I shouted back, annoyed at her interruption.

"Did you tell them yet?!"

"Jus' ignore 'er Grace." Connor instructed. "Get et all out."

"Yeah. Um...so, Camille has this friend down at the strip-club and she's sleeping with this cop. So when I went out on that date with you, she had her friend's cop follow me. When I got home Camille threatened to tell you everything about me, what I'd been doing, the plan, everything, if I didn't carry on with the plan. And after the date, I knew I couldn't let it happen. I mean, I didn't think I would but I actually enjoyed spending time with you, and I didn't wanna stop. Everything I told you was true though, me wanting to travel, to get away from my family. Now you boys can see why." I sighed, gesturing the living room where Camille was.

"I didn't realise it was actually Connor Camille slept with until I got home from your apartment. I told her that Murphy let girls know it would be a one-night-stand and she flipped out, shouted something about me trusting you guys more than her. Anyway, she let out a small detail about Murphy being blonde and I put the pieces together. Especially after our little 'talk'." Murphy nodded as I directed the last part at him, while Connor looked completely confused.

"What talk?"

"Don' worry 'bout it," Murphy reassured his brother. "Carry on lass."

"Then, the plan changed." I took a shaky breath, knowing this part would probably tick Connor off the most. "Instead of screwing Murphy over - since we realised he didn't do anything, Camille decided something else. The plan was to make you fall in love with me, then knock you on your ass when you finally admitted in. And I _actually _agreed to it, I'm just so used to guys being jack-asses, sleeping with girls and then leaving. So when I found out it was _you _that slept with my sister, I believed you would've done it to me too, eventually. So I went along with the plan again..."

"Fuck dis." Connor muttered, rising from his chair.

"C'mon brother, jus' hear her out." Murphy protested.

"Nah, I mean...fuck!"

"Connor, just listen." I pleaded.

He chuckled humourlessly, shaking his head as he sat back down. "I think I've listened ta enough, don' ye think Gracie?"

I sighed, chewing my bottom lip - again. "Just let me finish, I'm nearly done and when I'm finished you can go. You won't ever have to see me again, just _please _listen."

After a moments hesitation - and a few shared glances between him and his brother, he nodded. "A'right Grace."

"Thank you. After the night you stayed here, you left your sweater. Camille 'cleaned' through my room and just so happened to find it, even though I'd stashed it in the back of my closet. So when I got home, we had a fight and it ended with her letting me out of the plan. She asked me if I like you and I told her I did, she asked if you liked me and I told her I thought you did. So, she let me out of the plan. For good this time."

"Is dat why ye were so happy tonight?" Murphy asked in slight realisation.

"Yup," I confirmed. "But when she called McGinty's and told me you were here it scared me to death. I thought if you recognized her you'd know something was up. Guess I didn't have much to worry about in that department."

"So, dat's it?" Connor asked, noticing that I wasn't carrying on.

"That's it." I nodded, feeling a wave of relief wash over me.

"No it's not."

All heads turned towards the kitchen doorway where Camille stood, the now-empty alcohol bottle still in hand. And instead of giddy, she just looked pissed - and slightly scary.

"Dere's more?" Murphy asked, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"Yeah. Why don't you tell the boys the rest Grace?" She suggested, glaring my way.

"What does it matter?" I sighed, a slight plead to my tone.

"Jus' tell us Grace, it can' be dat bad." Connor shrugged, a little less pissed than he was a moment ago. However, I knew it would soon change.

"Okay. The reason you boys don't see me Monday to Friday is because I'm at school." I admitted, wringing my hands once again.

"_Please _tell us ye mean college lass."

"Nope." Camille smirked, crossing her arms. "Little-sister here is a minor."

"Aye, I knew dat already. But I assumed she was nineteen at the younges'." Connor sighed, rubbing at his forehead stressfully.

"I'm not nineteen...yet."

Murphy groaned, tilting his head slightly. "How old are ye lass?"

I sighed and paused for a moment before replying. "I'm seventeen."

"Fuck me sideways." Connor mumbled, moving from the stool and pacing the kitchen.

"I know I should've told you, but I wasn't exactly planning on letting things get that far."

"Ye mean ye weren' plannin' on fuckin' me." He stated, his eyes narrowed in either anger or annoyance.

"No, not at first. Then I got out of the plan and I actually considered it." I admitted.

"Tell us somethin' Gracie," Murphy interjected. "When _do _ye finish school?"

"In two months. The finals are in May and Graduation in June. So, there really wasn't any point in telling you boys about my age unless I was going to fuck one of you - which I wasn't. I turn eighteen in July." I explained, shrugging my shoulders.

"Well, what do ye think brother?" Murphy asked, looking at Connor who'd finally stopped his pacing.

"I think," Connor paused, taking a deep-breath. "I think I need a drink."

"Ye wanna go ta McGinty's?"

"Aye."

Both men grabbed their pea-coats, pulling them on. Camille remained in her position against the doorway, smiling smugly. And me? I stayed put, feeling a little exhausted from the explaining.

"I guess we'll see ye aroun' or somethin'." Murphy told me, shoving his hands into the coat pockets.

"Nah Murphy, we won'. She got no reason ta stick aroun' us." Connor told him.

"I'm sorry, okay?!" I exclaimed, feeling a little frustrated. "I didn't even mean for it to get this far."

"Well et did lass, 'm pretty impressed though. Not many people could pull dis off, stringin' a guy along an' gettin' ye homework in on time."

"It wasn't like that." I insisted, rising from the stool.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh please, dat's how it sounds when ye put it all together."

I shook my head. "No, it wasn't like that. Stringing a guy along would mean that I didn't even like said guy to begin with. I _actually _liked you. It wasn't a game, I mean at first I wasn't that interested. You have _no _idea how stressful this whole thing was, for me as much as anyone. You guys think I liked doing it to you? You think I enjoyed doing this? Because I didn't. It was a fucking nightmare and I tried to get out of it without hurting anyone, and I probably could have if my sister wasn't a fucking bitch. I mean, yes it was a pretty bad thing to try and do but you had to have seen something like this coming. You guys break hearts nearly every day, and you're actually pissed at me? You guys are fucking hilarious."

"Are ye tryin' ta make what ye done right, lass? 'Cause if ye are den it ain't workin'. An' if ye think yer the good girl in all o' dis den yer no different den yer sister." Connor shrugged.

"Just get out." I sighed, shaking my head at him.

"I was plannin' on et. An' I wan' me fuckin' sweater back!" He exclaimed as both he and Murphy headed towards the door.

"Fine! I was gonna burn it anyway!"

The door slammed shut and I sighed, resting my head on the cold counter. It was all done, everything had been said, and now Camille had no hold over me. Connor and Murphy could carry on banging their way through life, and I could finally concentrate on my school work. But why did I still feel so bad?.

"That could've been messy." Camille giggled, occupying Connor's vacated seat.

"Shut the fuck up." I snapped before heading towards my bedroom.

* * *

Author's Note:

Hi guys! Me again. I hope it was as good as you expected it to me, sorry if it's not. But I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. :)


	22. Chapter 22

Author's Note:

Hi readers! Just a quick heads-up to say the story is almost over, but I still have a couple of chapters left, so don't go anywhere :).

Anyway, thank you guys so much for the reviews, follows, or favourites. They mean a lot.

* * *

It had been a week since everything had happened; A week since I'd last seen the twins, a week since I'd last seen Camille or my parents...and a week since I'd moved out of the house. I'd been a little depressed at the start, couldn't stop thinking about the twins and Rocco. I hadn't event known them for that long, but it felt like I'd known them for years. Camille had been the worst part of the week though. Always knocked on my door, constantly shouted that I was being ridiculous and I should get over Connor - not that I needed to. And she even had the nerve to knock on my window during one of her drunk-acts, but I didn't let her in. Which resorted in her using the front door, and being yelled at by my parents for waking them up. Saying I was happy about that would be an understatement, my irresponsible older-sister being shouted at had been quite amusing for me. But it didn't last. Soon enough, she was yelling through my door again, telling me I needed to be a better sister to her...So I moved out.

I now lived with my Aunt Belle. Despite being a bit of a gossip, she was the only family member I could stand to be around, since my parents were always at work and Camille was...well, Camille. I'd told her everything and she'd immediately rushed out that there was a spare room in her apartment above the store. It was an empty room, but I'd used some money to paint the walls, then all that was left was moving my stuff into my new room, it was simple enough. Sure my parents had put up a bit of a fight, but they'd eventually given in. Camille however, had thrown a fit - to be blunt. But it didn't matter what she shouted, screamed, or written down. I left whether she liked it or not, and now I had nothing holding me back.

Jade had been a little more than ecstatic. And the blonde had actually told my sister where to go the day I moved out. I'd obviously been amused with the confrontation, along with most of our neighbours. It was the most action they were going to get anyway. And since my best friend had gotten her drivers license only two days ago, I didn't have to worry about being late to school anymore.

My life was kind of perfect now I guess. I didn't have to worry about Camille, my school work, being late for work. And instead of paying rent, I helped my Aunt down in the store as payment. So, everything was pretty much amazing...well, almost everything. Saying I missed the twins and Rocco would be an understatement. Plus, to make matters worse, I still had to give Connor's sweater back. Something I wasn't looking forward to doing.

"Hey bitch!"

I smiled and looked up from my magazine. "Hey slut."

Jade winked and dropped her backpack behind the counter, occupying the seat next to me. "Watcha doin'?"

"Not much."

"Fair enough. So, how you doin'?" She hesitatingly questioned.

I sighed to myself and tilted my head at her. Despite repeatedly telling her - and others - that I was doing fine, she continued to ask me if I was okay. At first it wasn't so bad, it was actually pretty good to have someone ask how I was. But after a week? Well, it was beginning to get annoying. I knew her intentions were good, and she just wanted to make sure I was okay, but I was pretty close to decking her.

"I'm fine, for the millionth time this week."

"Grace," She groaned, throwing her head back as she dragged the word out.

"No. Look Jade, I'm _fine. _I know I shouldn't be and that any other girl would be sobbing their heart out, but I'm not. I'm actually pretty relieved it's all over. I'm definitely not ready to date anyone again, not for a while anyway, especially after this. But at the end of the day, I'm pretty good right now." I told her, shrugging my shoulders.

Jade nodded in understanding, resting her forearms on the counter. "I guess but, don't you ever...miss him?"

"Yeah, I do." I admitted. "But it's not gonna change anything. He still hates me and I'm getting on with it, no point sitting around and thinking about 'what-if's'."

"Well, 'what-if's' aren't that bad. I mean, what if you hadn't met through Camille's plan? And what if your sister hadn't been a huge slut?"

"Then my life would be boring."

"Eh, guess that's true. But, what if Connor did decide to come back? What if he just randomly turned up here?" She asked, smirking slightly.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Those are some pretty big 'what-if's' Jade."

"Aye, I guess they are."

My eyes immediately widened and I turned in my seat.

"Connor?"

"Hi stranger." He waved, looking slightly awkward.

I turned back to Jade, narrowing my eyes at her. "You knew he was there?!"

She shrugged her shoulders, attempting to look innocent as she slid off the high chair. "Maybe. I'll be in the puppy-pen."

Jade rushed off towards the back of the store where the puppies were kept, leaving me alone with Connor. My Aunt had popped out somewhere, so there was no one to disturb us. Except a customer, but we rarely got them on weekdays.

"So...what are you doing here?" I finally asked, turning back to face him.

"Was headin' home from work, saw ye through the window. Thought I'd say hi." He replied, slowly approaching the counter.

"So, we've been avoiding each other for a week now and you randomly decided to stop by? How did you even know I'd be here?"

"Ye been avoidin' me lass?" He questioned, sounding a lot more disappointed than she should have.

"Well, yeah." I muttered, shaking my head. "I mean, we didn't exactly part with good words. And after all of...well, that. I assumed you didn't want to speak to me anymore."

Connor rested his arms on the glass counter, tilting his head slightly. "Ye need ta stop assumin' Gracie. I mean, yeah it was a bit of a harsh fight, but dat don' mean I don' wanna see ye again."

I smiled to myself and nodded. "That's nice an' all but how did you know I was here?"

"I talked ta yer sister." He sighed.

"Yikes, how did that go?" I winced.

"Not the best, she can be quite loud when she wants ta."

"Hmm, bet you know all about that."

He chuckled and I smirked, gnawing at my bottom lip. "See, dat's what I miss."

My smirk fell at his words and I sighed, nervously glancing down at my wringing hands. "I miss you too. Both of you. Hell, even Rocco."

"Aye, we miss ye too."

"So, um, I actually have something I needed to give back to you."

"Oh?"

"Yup. Jade!"

My best friend peeked out from behind one of the counters, one of the German-Shepard puppies in her arms.

"Yo?!"

"Can you watch the store for me? I'm only going upstairs."

"Yeah, course. Just be quick, you know how I am with strangers." She pleaded.

"Sure." I giggled, grabbing my apartment keys from underneath the counter.

~...~...~...~...~...~

"So, dis is yer new place?" Connor asked, scanning the apartment I was currently living in.

It wasn't huge, but it wasn't as small as his either. There were three rooms including the bathroom, and the kitchen was linked to the living room. It had everything Belle and I needed though, so I was fine with it.

"Yep." I confirmed, dropping my keys onto the coffee table. "You want a drink?"

He nodded and took off his pea-coat, neatly placing it on the back of the couch. "Aye, what ye got?"

I shrugged and yanked open the fridge door, glancing at the contents. "Soda, diet soda, but no alcohol. Sorry."

"It's a'right Grace, I'll 'ave a soda."

"Me too." I muttered, grabbing two cans out of the fridge and bumping the door shut with my hip.

"Thanks lass." He said as I handed him the can, opening my own straight after.

"So, wait here and I'll get...well, what I have to get." I instructed, placing my can onto the table before heading into my room.

I was a little nervous about giving it back to him. Well, really nervous actually. I wondered if this was how split-up couples felt when returning the others stuff to them. And if it was, then I didn't like it one bit. But I couldn't sympathize with myself, I'd gotten myself into this mess, and now I had to deal with the consequences. And even though it was just a shirt, it felt like more.

After digging through my top drawer, I finally located the brown sweater - which still fitted pretty well. I'd actually worn it to bed the first night after the fight. It made me fell better and stopped my headaches believe it or not. So giving it up was a little difficult, even if it was his sweater, I didn't really want to give it back.

"Here." I finally spoke, standing behind the couch where Connor sat.

He looked back at me, then at my hand where the sweater was held. Strangely enough his face fell slightly, like he was disappointed with this too. Which just made me confused. He'd asked for it back, so why did he look so upset that I was actually giving it back to him?. Sometimes guys made no sense.

"Ye didn' burn it." He remarked, slowly taking it from me.

"Couldn't if I wanted to. You loved that sweater, I wouldn't do something like that. I'm not my sister." I said, sitting down on the table as I picked up my can.

"Well ye better than any o' the girls I know. Apart from me ma o' course."

I smirked. "You a momma's boy Connor?"

He rolled his eyes at me, letting the sweater fall onto his lap. "Please,"

"I'll bet you are."

"Don' start wit me lass." He playfully threatened.

"What you gonna do Connor?" I teased, tilting my head. "You can't do anything to me."

He chewed the inside of his cheek, slowly shaking his head. "Don' test me Gracie."

I took a sip of my soda and shrugged innocently. "Can't help myself."

"I'll bet."

"Clever. Anyway, how's things on the Irish side of town?"

"Not too bad, little quiet I s'pose."

"You complaining?"

"Aye."

"Only _you _would complain about the city being too quiet." I giggled, rolling my eyes.

"Not me fault! 'M not used ta silence!" He replied defensively.

"Yeah, fair enough. Um...I should really get back down to the store, before Jade lets the dogs out." I sighed, rising to my feet.

He nodded and stood from the couch, picking up his coat as we both headed towards the door. It didn't take long for us to get back downstairs, but when we did it was quite awkward. Neither of us knew what to say...or do. Did I want him to stay? Yes. But on another level I wanted him to go too. I'd been doing so well this passed week, so him turning up wasn't good for me.

"So, I guess I'll see ye roun'?"

"Maybe." I sighed, crossing my arms. But even I knew the possibility's were slim.

"Right well, I guess dis is 'bye'." He said, pulling on his pea-coat.

I nodded, pushing away the nagging voice in my head telling me to keep him there. "I guess."

Connor nodded to himself and glanced around, not sure what to say next probably. "So, bye. An' 'm sorry 'bout before."

"What do you mean?"

"Shoutin' at ye when ye tried explainin' eveythin'." He clarified.

"Uh...yeah. No it's fine, you had every reason to go off on me. I should've seen it coming, actually." I reassured.

"Can I ask ye somethin' lass?"

I nodded. "Of course."

He paused for a moment, as though thinking over what he was about to say. "Did ye really like me Grace? Or was it jus' the plan makin' ye act dat way?"

"I liked you." I stated without a second's hesitation. "There's no doubts in my mind about that. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't have practically jumped you in McGinty's, and I definitely wouldn't have let you sleep in my bed. I'm not that good of an actress, Connor."

"Jus' so ye know, I wasn' plannin' on fuckin' an' dumpin' ye."

"Yeah, I know that now."

"At least we lasted a week." He chuckled, attempting to lighten things up a bit; It worked.

"I guess. I had this internal bet that I could get you running." I shrugged, smiling slightly.

"Tol' ye lass, I like a challenge."

"I figured."

I hesitated for a moment before taking a step closer, resting one hand on his shoulder. On one hand, I knew I was pushing it. But on the other, I really wanted to touch him. It may sound stalkerish or strange, but I couldn't help it. I'd been too used to it to stop now. Plus, this was most-likely going to be the last time I saw him. And I was making the most of it.

"I _really _did like you. Just remember that, every time you think of me."

"What makes ye think I'll be thinkin' o' ye lass?" He questioned, the smirk on his face letting me know he was teasing.

I rolled my eyes and scoffed playfully. "Please, no one can forget me. Just promise me one thing,"

"Anythin' Grace."

"The next time you decide to bump-and-dump a girl, make sure she doesn't have a little sister."

He chuckled and nodded. "O' course lass. I learnt from me mistakes."

I smiled. "Good boy McManus."

"Although," He carried on, placing one hand against the side of my neck, the thumb lightly stroking my skin. "I don' think I'll be sleepin' wit anyone for a while."

"If it helps, I don't think I will either. You're a pretty charming guy when you wanna be."

"Well, I do try."

"Ass." I laughed, lightly smacking his chest.

"C'mon now, is dere really any need for hittin'?"

"Oh please, I can't be the first girl to hit you."

"Well, yer right dere lass. But hopefully ye'll be the last."

"Keep breaking hearts like you do and I won't be." I remarked, tilting my head slightly.

"Back atcha Gracie." He grinned.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Hey! I don't break hearts, never have and I never will."

"Oh ye will, trus' me on dat one. Ye still got a while ta go Gracie, look forward to it."

"I do. But until then, I'm just an innocent seventeen year old adjusting to inner-city Boston." I sighed.

"Innocent?" He chuckled, shaking his head. "Ye far from innocent. But I doubt I'll ever get used ta ye bein' seventeen."

"Don't start with me Connor, you think it's easy knowing you're twenty-five?"

"What's wrong wit me bein' twenty-five?!"

"Well you don't act it, for one."

"Never heard ye complainin' before."

"Okay, okay, you got me there. Tell the boys I said 'hi' though, okay?"

He nodded. "Course. Why don' ye come by sometime? 'M sure Murph' would love ta see ye."

I shook my head. "I think It'd be better if I don't. Makes this a lot easier."

"I get et Grace. I s'pose I'll see ye."

"Yeah, I guess."

We both pulled back at the same time. Me moving my hand back to my side while he did the same, shoving his hands into his front pockets.

"Bye Gracie." He waved, walking backwards.

"Bye." I sighed, giving him a small wave before entering the store.

"You okay?"

I stared at the floor as I shook my head, my right hand toying with my family pendant.

"I think it would've been a better week if I hadn't seen him at all." I admitted, looking up at her.

Jade sighed and pulled me into a tight hug, soothingly rubbing my back. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, resting my head on her shoulder.

"It'll get better." She promised.

"I know." I whispered. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew it wouldn't.


	23. Chapter 23

Author's Note:

Hi guys! I'm back! And very sorry that I haven't updated in a looong time, I've been pretty occupied with my others stories. But I'm back now and determined to finish off this story, or get another chapter done at least. And on another note...I HAVE 112 REVIEWS! I've never had triple-digits on a story before, so this is like, amazing for me. And I have you dudes and duettes to thank! So thank you soooo much for all the reviews, they mean so much to me.

Anyway, enough with my excitement. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and please review, follow, or favourite if you can. ;)

* * *

~...~...~...June 21st, 1997...~...~...~  
~...Grace's Apartment ...~

"What about this one?" Jade asked me, staring at herself in the body-length mirror.

"That's nice." I muttered, flipping the pages of the magazine.

"You said that about the last one." She whined. I rolled my eyes.

It was the day of our graduation and Jade wanted my help in picking out an outfit. There was party afterwards at some random high-schooler's house, which we were attending of course, so Jade wanted to look her best. But as much as I loved the girl, she really knew how to take her time. Everything she chose was great, but she seemed very indecisive about it all. Even if I said it was amazing, she'd find something wrong with the dress. It was either too short, too long, made her ass look big, or showed too much cleavage. There was no winning with her.

"That's because the last one was nice too, and the one before that, then the one before that,"

"Okay, okay, I see your point!" She exclaimed, cutting me off as she narrowed her eyes.

"Jade I'm being serious, you look great in anything." I sighed, tilting my head.

The blonde turned to stare at herself in the mirror again, smoothing down the body-hugging navy-blue dress she wore. It looked good on her, but I knew like the twenty dresses before, it'd just wind up back in her suitcase.

"Easy for you to say," She grumbled. "You look good in just about anything, and you already know what you're wearing."

"Why don't we come back here after the ceremony? No one's gonna see what you're wearing under the robes anyway."

"That's not the point! _I'll _know I look good under the baggy clothes, which will make me more confident. If I don't feel confident I could fall down on the stage, or flake out or something!"

I sighed and shook my head at her over-exaggeration, looking back down at the slightly-boring magazine I'd been reading. Jade would go no matter what, it was just how she worked. She'd freak out about what she wore, claim she wasn't going, then would find an outfit about half an hour later and ask why she hadn't tried it on in the first place, when really she'd already tried the outfit. Jade was a little weird like that, but I loved her either way.

"I love you Jade but sometimes you just whine too much." I told her, smiling as her jaw dropped in disbelief.

"I do not!" She exclaimed, glaring back at me. "I just have different opinions on different things. Anyway, is your mom going?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"Are you serious?"

"Yup."

"Well, why aren't your parents going?!"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "I guess they already had one child graduate that another one wouldn't be any different. As long as I bring the cap home to them to put up on the wall they're fine, and so am I. I don't care if they don't show, I'd rather they didn't anyway, graduating isn't that important to me so why should it be to them? I'm a little ashamed of my family, I'd rather they just stay out of my life."

"Grace," Jade sighed, moving to sit next to me on the bed. "Someone _has _to go, you're only gonna graduate once in your life. I mean, I'm ashamed of my family too but they're all going, and I'm glad they are. You should at least invite one person you like, just for support or something."

I tilted my head at her, rolling my eyes slightly. "There is no one to invite Jade, and I'm honestly fine with that. Just let it go, please."

"Fine." She groaned, throwing her head back in annoyance while she got to her feet. "Okay, what about this one."

~...~...~...After the Graduation...~...~...~

As I made my way home with a slightly-tipsy Jade, I wasn't exactly sure what to think anymore. I'd finally finished school. I'd always known I would, and with good grades, but I hadn't expected to be where I was right now. I mean, I'd moved out of the beautiful big suburb house with the superficial family, and decided to live with my Aunt in her inner city apartment. I'd gone out with an older Irish guy, successfully messed him up for life, probably. But in a weird, and pretty sick way, I felt good. Because if it hadn't of been for Camille's plan, I wouldn't have gone to that bar, wouldn't have talked to Connor or the other two, and probably would've carried on being my big sisters slave; But I wasn't.

I hadn't seen any of the boys in months, not since the last time Connor came by anyway. And to be honest, I kind'a missed the trio. They'd been funny, charming, and so easy to talk to. Plus, they didn't know my real age back then, so they didn't have me pegged down as a 'little girl'. I was myself around them, much like I was with Jade. But they had to move on now, and so did I.

"You know I love you, right?" Jade drunkenly asked me, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah I do." I giggled, keeping her upright.

"A...and we're gonna be BFF's for life. You know that too, right?"

"Yeah I do."

"Cause we're soulmates!" She yelled out the last part and I flinched, smiling in amusement as I attempted to shush her. It was pretty late, since she'd insisted on grabbing some drinks from the after-party, and I was pretty sure most of Boston didn't want their sleep disturbed by a drunk eighteen year old girl.

"You're so lucky you're staying over mine tonight." I told her, lightly shaking my head.

"C...can we have - hiccup - ice cream?"

"Sure."

"W...with chocolate sprinkles?"

Okay, so she was a little more than tipsy. But I was used to dealing with drunk girls, but unlike Camille, I knew Jade wouldn't ever use me for that.

"If you want." I nodded, eager to get her home faster.

We finally reached the closed pet store, and the apartment door right next to it. I gently lowered Jade down onto the steps, knowing that I'd need both hands to fish out my key - especially since there was no light. But when Jade sat, a rustling sound filled the air, like she'd sat down on cardboard or something. I ignored it for now, and finally managed to get my key into the hole. And, after turning on the light, I pulled Jade to her feet and got her into the apartment, dropping her onto the couch.

"I don't feel so good." She moaned.

I smiled and rolled my eyes, taking off her shoes. Jade sighed at the feeling of relief and I quickly grabbed the sleeping bag she'd brought, throwing it over her. She immediately snuggled into the warmth, resting her head on one of my Aunts cushions. I quickly grabbed the small bathroom bin and put it down next to the couch, knowing she'd need it tomorrow. And, when I was completely satisfied that my friend was okay, I headed back down the stairs, intent on finding out what the noise was.

The source of the noise, it seemed, had been a medium-sized brown box. Obviously it was dented and wrinkled, with Jade having sat on it. So I quickly came back into the apartment, where it was a lot lighter, and carried the box upstairs. Jade was sound asleep when I came back up, curled up inside her sleeping bag. I giggled and shook my head, instead moving to sit on the armchair while I opened the box.

I'd turned the lamp lights down to a dim light, making it easier for Jade to sleep, but I could still see the contents of the box as I lifted the lid. Whatever was inside was brown, and a soft fabric. A folded up note had been placed on top of whatever the garment was, so I unfolded it, crossing my legs as I got into a more comfortable position on the arm chair.

_Gracie,  
__Sorry we missed your graduation, hopefully this will make up for it._

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. The letter hadn't been signed, so who sent it?. Maybe it'd been my parents, but I had to immediately scoff at that thought, knowing they'd most likely disowned me at this point. I knew it definitely wasn't Camille, and my Aunt had given me my gift this morning - a gorgeous silver and green charm bracelet. So, in that moment, I really couldn't decide who'd sent it. But, as I placed the note down onto the coffee table, and lifted the garment out of the box, I knew who'd sent it.

"Momma I don't wanna go to school." Jade muttered, obviously getting back into the habit of sleep talking.

I smiled in amusement and stood from the armchair, taking the note, the box, and the piece of clothing into my bedroom. Aunt Belle had gone out for the night, deciding to make herself scarce so that Jade and I could have a good time here. Though she probably should've just stayed, at least then it would've given me someone to talk to about this. Jade would know in the morning, but until then, I decided to fold up the long brown sweater and put it in my drawer, leaving the note on the nightstand before heading back into the living room.

* * *

Author's Note;

Hi guys! So, this was the last ever chapter of 'Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive'. i really hope you guys enjoyed it, and I'm sorry I couldn't make the last chapter more exciting or something. There may be a sequel, depending on how I feel about it. But I'm super glad you all liked this story, and thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favourited, it means everything. Anyway, thanks again! - BlueEyesXoX


End file.
